


A Little Coyote

by TweakerWolf (Frostbyte)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Confusion, Gen, Making Friends, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John, coping with becoming a human, platonic relationship only, strong connection
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-02-06 16:56:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1865418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frostbyte/pseuds/TweakerWolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scott has just recently 'shocked' Malia back into her human form; she's been reintroduced to her father but things aren't quite working out at home so she spends much of her time in the woods. It's on one of those trips that she runs into Stiles. Before long Stiles becomes the one person that Malia likes and trusts, so he takes on the responsibility of teaching her how to be a human again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finding Malia

**Author's Note:**

> In this story, Stiles is not going to be affected by the Nogitsune and I'm not sure if I want to write any of the Nogitsune drama into this story… Since the story will be focusing on Malia, and also Stiles, I figure they really don't need any drama going on. So more than likely it will be the gang trying to figure out how to recover from the havoc the Alpha pack and the Darach caused.  
> I want to warn everyone now, I'm going to be taking a few liberties with this story, such as how Stiles and Malia interacted when she was a coyote and in general how her mental state gets dealt with. It's fanfiction and I can do with it what I want! heehee, but in order for some things to work, you might notice a few impracticalities and I hope they aren't too big of a deal (I know some people are sticklers for fact). I hope you enjoy this story, I know a lot of people are upset with how Malia's character is being handled/was introduced/just don't like her. This story is about how I think she should have been written, while still giving her a strong connection with Stiles. Why Stiles, because he's my favorite and he's kinda the problem solver on the show, so who else might get stuck 'babysitting'? Remember, this is a PLATONIC relationship, this will not turn into a dating thing.

Malia couldn't believe that she was stuck at home again, it was painful. How come no one else realized that she didn't want to be there? She was surrounded by all those old memories, memories that had almost faded… Her hands clenched into fists as she ran them through her hair, her mother, her sister… all that blood. When she was a coyote, at least she could pretend to drown them out, and she was able to cry her heart out and the creatures of the forest joined her. Her howl had been beautiful, and now she was stuck with this raspy human voice she barely even remembered how to use… Dad said she used to love singing, and that maybe with time she'd pick it up again, but no sounds she made were like her coyote singing. And the worst part, she couldn't tell Dad what had really happened to her. Sheriff Stilinski said he wouldn't understand, and that it would just be easier to tell everyone that she had been lost in the woods all this time-that by some miracle she had been found. Some miracle her tail! Life back then had been easy, after awhile of course.

It had taken her awhile to learn how to cope with all the differences, the world was so strange when you started roaming around on all fours. She had missed her thumbs for awhile, and now that she had them back… she wished she didn't. Everything was so cold now too, that was probably the worst part of it. No matter how many layers of clothes she wore, it just wasn't the same as her nice fur coat, and they smelled funny too! Malia sighed, dropping down onto the forest floor, laying her head in the fallen leaves. She breathed in deep, letting the smell of the wild calm her; her fingers drew small circles in the loose dirt, the dark material easily burying itself under her fingernails. As she started to calm down, she heard the chattering of the birds stop, everything went silent for a moment. Malia sat up, straining her ears to listen, ready to run away at the first sound of danger. These human ears felt almost useless! But she could still hear things well enough, and she trusted her instincts so when she heard a faint sound of footsteps, she sat up.

Not many people wandered in the woods, it wasn't particularly safe, especially after people had started dying. Malia shivered as she remembered the dark force that wandered around a few months ago, even now she could feel her skin prickling at the thought of coming into contact with it. But these footsteps were clumsy and erratic, and if she listened close enough, she could just make out someone mumbling under their breath.

"Damn it Scotty, why am I the one that's out here? I don't know anything about finding a werecoyote! It's not like I have super wolf senses, what good am I?"

Malia ducked behind a tree even though the person was still yards away- he was looking for her? And Scott, that was the boy that changed her back! Everyone had been expecting her to be thankful, to be human once more, but they didn't understand! What was this human doing out here anyways, what did they want with her? The noises came closer.

"I swear Scott, you owe me big time for this! I mean, it's not like Malia even knows me or anything. Even if I do run into her, she's probably going to just disappear on me, being a stranger and all."

Malia bit her lip, she had caught most of what this boy was saying, the time spent at the police station, the hospital, listening to Dad- she remembered a lot of the language. But speaking it was more difficult than listening to it; but she did know this boy was looking for her, because Scott wanted him to. She peered out from behind the tree and saw the other boy, the one that had been with Scott and the Sheriff. She smiled, he was the one that made her laugh when he made a comment about curly fries. Apparently it was a surprise to everyone that Malia knew what curly fries were, but then again a lot of people forgot that coyotes were scavengers, eating whatever they found. Malia wasn't above admitting that she'd picked through some garbage during her furry years. So when she smelled the fries she had whimpered and grabbed a handful, stuffing them in her mouth-they were her favorite human food, but they weren't easy to find on the outskirts of the forests.

"See, curly fries are so awesome, even a werecoyote can appreciate their deliciousness," Stiles had said. She had laughed because it was true, the first time she smelled them, she thought they were amazing. Oh and the taste, even better than the smell, if that was possible.

The sound of a sudden gasp and the silence of the footsteps brought Malia back to the future, the boy had spotted her. Her fingers tightened into the bark of the tree, suddenly afraid to be seen- what if he wanted to take her somewhere and have people run experiments on her?

"Hey Malia," he called out softly, knowing that she could hear him. "I'm Stiles, do you remember me? I was at the police station with everyone. The Sheriff is my dad."

Instead of answering him, she ducked further behind the tree, only peering out with one eye, making sure that he didn't try to sneak up on her.

Stiles sighed, "Maybe I should have brought food with me…"

"Food?"

Stiles's jaw dropped, he had been expected her to have run away by now, but here she was, poking her head out from behind a tree, eyes wide. "I can go get food if you want? Are you hungry Malia?"

Shyly, the young teen nodded her head, she had barely eaten anything this morning; she had just wanted to get out of that house, with it's strange smells and be out in the forest again.

"What would you like? Hamburger?"

Malia bit her lip, hamburgers were nice, as long as it didn't have all the stuff on it, but how could she tell him that?

Seeing that she was troubled by something, Stiles crouched down and eased back onto his butt. He wanted her to know that he wasn't going anywhere while she tried to figure this out, nor was he going to get any closer than she was comfortable with. Just by looking at her, he could tell that she was having a hard time transitioning; she had that 'wild' look in her eyes. Not the typical kind you hear people talk about, refereeing to serial killers or anything, but just the look of a wild animal, full of wariness and curiosity.

"Maybe not a hamburger?" he asked.

"Hamburger yes, no… no stuff," Malia croaked out, waving her hands in frustration.

"You don't want fries?" Stiles asked in disbelief.

"Fries, yes fries," Malia assured him, eyes widening in fear, then a small breath of frustration through her nose.

"Okay, let's see, you do want a hamburger and fries, but no…stuff?"

"Only meat on hamburger!" Malia cried out, figuring out a way to tell him.

Stiles smiled, finally understanding, "Okay, so you want a plain hamburger, meat only, with the fries."

Malia collapsed against the tree in relief, nodding her head quickly, talking with others usually took a lot of out her. "Yes… please" she barely remembered to add on.

Slowly Stiles stood up, holding out his hands when Malia started to back away from him, "It's okay, I'm not going to come any closer. I have to go back to my Jeep, to pick up the food, is that okay? I promise I'll come back with your food."

Hearing his steady heartbeat, Malia gathered that he was calm around her, and calm usually meant honest. Unhonest people were usually nervous and were sweaty and their hearts raced. So she nodded and watched him as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Um, would you maybe want to come with me? Not, not to go get the food-" Stiles quickly added on, seeing the fear in her eyes. "It's just that, well, I don't know if I'll be able to find my way back here. So if you follow me back to my Jeep, you'll be able to see when I come back. Then I won't get lost out in here in the woods."

Malia tapped her fingers against the tree, should she follow him? What if he was leading her into a trap? But he was calm, and calm meant honest. So slowly she came out from behind the tree and nodded once, she'd follow him. Stiles nodded at her and turned around, talking slow but sure steps. He didn't seem too worried that she was always about 10 feet away from him, just in case something bad happened, she'd be able to run away. After a few moments, he decided to talk to her, still keeping his voice low.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm out here looking for you," he started, knowing that she had probably heard him talking to himself. "Your dad is worried about you is all, he doesn't know what to do to help you. And Scott overheard him talking to some of the nurses at the hospital when he was visiting his mom. So of course he said that we should come out here and look for you."

"Where's Scott?" Malia asked quietly.

"Out with the rest of the gang of course, Scott is trying to figure out what to do with Derek. He's a mess, considering he lost two of his Betas… well three if you count Isaac joining up with Scott. Man, Pack dynamics is really confusing, be glad you don't have to deal with it."

"Pack… right."

Stiles continued to tell Malia a little about his rag-tag group of friends that were basically a pack; he figured she probably wasn't really interested, but it gave him something to do. After all, Stiles wasn't known for being a quiet church mouse, besides it was probably good practice for her right? It was maybe another 30 minutes at their slow pace before Stiles came up to the side of the road he had parked at.

"Okay, that's my Jeep, so I'll head into town and get us some food okay, then I'll come back. You don't have to stay right here next to the road, I know the cars are probably really loud. I'll call out when I get back okay, so you know it's me."

"'K."

He waved as he climbed into his blue vehicle, Malia backing off as he started it up, wanting to cover her ears but not wanting to appear weak either. As soon as the Jeep was out of sight, she backed further into the woods, letting the familiar surroundings comfort her. She found a mossy log to sit on while she waited, closing her eyes and let the sounds of the forest fill her head. Occasionally a car would zip by and startle her, always jumping to her feet and preparing to run, but they all kept going. So she'd sit down once more to wait. She didn't have much of a grasp of time yet, so she had no idea how long Stiles was actually gone, so she felt strangely relieved when she heard him calling out her name. Malia did her best to stay seated at her log, but as he came closer she stood up and started fidgeting, feeling nervous about having him come close.

"I'm just going set your food down by the log okay? Then I'll come sit over here, is that okay?" he asked.

A quick nod, hands wringing together; as he took small careful steps closer, Malia bounced from foot to foot. When he was about 3 feet away she whimpered and took a few quick steps back, she couldn't take it. So he stopped right there and placed her bag on the ground, along with a water bottle. Then he took a few steps backwards and found another log to sit on. Malia licked her lips as the smell of the food wafted over, eyes moving from the bag, to Stiles, and back. Her hesitance only last a few moments before she bolted to the log and sat down, pulling the bag into her lap. She started to pull out the food, barely getting the wrapper off before biting into the burger (hey coyotes don't mind paper here and there). As she chewed her food, she could suddenly hear her mother, back when she was 5, chastising her for not remembering her manners.

"Th-thank you," she managed, looking down at her food.

"No problem, I know what it's like to be hungry for a good burger every now and again," Stiles answered nonchalantly.

He watched as she tore into her burger, eating the whole thing before even reaching for the water. She struggled a bit with the cap, but she didn't look to Stiles for help so he didn't offer any. He understood how much of a pain it could be when you wanted to do something on your own and have everyone think you needed help. He smiled when she yipped in triumph, opening the bottle and raising it to her lips.

Malia figured there was some things that were better now that she was human again, it was much easier to drink water efficiently, and it was everywhere! She put the cap back on the bottle and started scarfing down her fries. It wasn't long before she could hear Stiles snickering, mouth and nose hidden behind his hand as he watched her. She tilted her head, wondering what was so funny.

Stiles couldn't help but laugh, she looked like such a little kid the way she ate- truthfully he probably looked about the same when it came to those fries but hey, they were good! She had no qualms about being dainty or dieting, it was refreshing to see. Stiles knew that Malia wasn't normal in a lot of ways, she had spent most of her crucial 'feminine' years alone, as a coyote. So of course she didn't know anything about carbs and fatty foods, or that stuffing 13 fries into your mouth all at once was 'un-ladylike,' and it was nice. And when she looked at him, with that small tilt of her head, he flashed back to the first time he had seen Malia, back when she was a coyote.

-Two weeks previously-

Stiles and Scott were out in the woods, looking for the old crash now that his dad was sure there was something supernatural about this case. When they had found the crash, Stiles bent down and found an old tattered doll. He had showed it to Scott but Scott hadn't been able to get anything off of it, so he continued to wander around the site, hoping to find some other clues. As he was crouching, digging around some of the brush, he heard a growl- looking up he came face to face with a coyote, teeth bared. Stiles slowly stepped back, Scott came flying around the car but Stiles stopped him with an open palm; Scott didn't have to come save him from every wild creature did he?

"Easy there little guy, no one wants to hurt you."

The coyote snarl, clacking its teeth together and shook it's head; it kept looking at the doll in his hands, then looking back at him with angry eyes. It didn't take Stiles long to realize that the coyote wanted the doll, so he placed it carefully on the ground and backed away. Within moments the coyote ran forward and picked up the doll before dancing away. As it climbed to the top of the small ravine, it looked back at them and its eyes flashed blue.

"Malia?" Stiles asked.

She whined, looked around confused, but shook her head and ran off. Stiles looked to Scott, a werecoyote?

-Back in the woods-

"Sorry for laughing Malia, it's just nice to see someone who eats food like I do. Most people consider that rude, just stuffing your face like that. But I mean, it's delicious, how can you not put as much into your mouth as you can?"

Malia's eyes brightened, glad that he wasn't going to get mad at her like Dad always did; in the wild, you didn't have time for niceties, not when someone might come and take your dinner. Her shoulders dropped as she relaxed, watching Stiles stuff some of his hamburger into his mouth and moan. The first dinner she had at home was awful, Dad ate everything so slow and the food tasted funny. She was used to some human foods, but there was a lot that she didn't get her paws on as a wolf, so heavily seasoned foods were still strange to her. And the 'lemon pepper chicken' from that night-ugh.

They sat in silence while they finished their food, the slight rustling of wrappers was the only noise. When she finished, Stiles gently reminded her to put all her trash together, they didn't want to be littering. As she stuffed all of the trash back into the original bag, she watched Stiles from the corner of her eye, he was drinking something different and it intrigued her. Slowly she maneuvered herself closer, hands fidgeting with the bag as she stopped herself from bolting. Stiles noticed her coming closer and kept all of his movements slow, really only breathing and twirling his soda cup in his hands.

When she was about a foot away, she finally pointed at his cup, "What's that?"

"Soda, it's called Pepsi. Do you want to try it? It's very different from water," Stiles explained.

Malia put her bag of trash down next to Stiles's pile and carefully lowered herself down onto the log next to him, "Smell?"

"Sure," Stiles nodded, reaching up and popping the top off. He held the cup out for her to take, watching as she held it up to her face and sniffed.

Her noise twitched at the bubbles popped and splashed small amounts of the liquid onto her face, she had no idea how to describe this substance, so she turned to her companion, "Taste like?"

"Um, that's… really hard to explain… It kinda tastes like Coke, but you don't know what that is either, never mind. It's sugary, and sweet, and the bubbles tickle your mouth. You can try it, see what you think."

Malia bit her lip, it smelled strange, and she had learned to stay away from strange things, strange usually meant dangerous. But she had watched Stiles drink this and he was fine, so maybe this stuff wasn't dangerous, just new. As she stared into the cup, she tried to remember if she'd ever encountered this before, all those years ago, but she didn't remember ever tasting it. But she could remember begging her mom to let her try some soda (she couldn't remember what kind) but her mom kept saying no, that it had too much sugar in it. Now her mom wasn't here to tell her no, and she had nothing to lose. So she brought the cup up to her mouth and drank; she almost spit it right back out. The bubbles surprised her, even though Stiles had said they'd tickle, she hadn't been expecting that! She held it in her mouth, letting the bubbles pop while she tried to figure out the taste. As she swallowed, there was a tingling sensation at the back of her throat that brought the smallest of tears to her eyes- another surprise.

"Good, or bad?" Stiles asked.

Malia licked her lips and pondered the answer, "Different."

"Yea, that's understandable, and Pepsi is only one kind of soda, there are many other flavors. All of them have the bubbles in them, but some taste more like fruit, others just taste, like everything. Dr. Pepper is definitely hard to pin down on the flavor scale," Stiles rambled on, not wanting her to feel weird about the new drink. He watched as she took one more small sip, hearing her swish it around and saw the moisture in her eyes, causing him to smile.

"You know how your eyes are kinda watery?" he asked, waiting for her nod before continuing. "I get that too, not all the time, but if it has been awhile since I've had soda, my eyes do that too. I think it's from the bubbles but I don't know for sure what it is."

Stiles could see Malia relax a little as he spoke, probably thankful that she wasn't the only one that reacted to soda like that. She handed the cup back and looked down at her hands, not sure what to do now.

"You like it out in the woods don't you?"

"This is home," Malia stated simply, looking at him.

"Is that why you spend so much time out here? Being in the house, with your dad is scary?"

Malia shrugged, "Not scary… just… different. Can't hear birds or crickets, can't smell air."

"Maybe we can talk to your dad about getting you a tent?" Stiles suggested.

Malia gave him a blank stare, not really understanding what he was talking about, so he hastened to explain, "They are like portable, fabric caves; you set them up outside and they give you shelter, but still let you be in the fresh air."

"Yes, tent, will try!" Malia exclaimed.

Stiles tried to hold back his smile, he could tell that every time Malia got excited, she started to cut out some of her words, sticking to the bare minimum to get her point across. "Let me call Scott and let him know that I found you, that you're okay. Then maybe I can walk you home?"

Malia snorted, "big girl, walk alone."

"I know you can walk alone, just that if I walk with you, then I can help convince your dad about the tent thing."

Stiles could see her thinking it over, slightly torn from the embarrassment of being walked home like some kid, to having help talking with her dad. In the end, Stiles won and she nodded her head, "Yes, okay."

She waited for him to stand, garbage in hand before she followed him, he seemed like an okay person, but she wasn't going to just turn her back on him. They walked in silence, Malia too busy listening to the words of the forest to participate in any conversation. It took them maybe a half hour before they reached her yard, and her dad could be seen just inside, pacing around the house through the windows. He must have seen movement because he glanced up and saw them both walking up to the house and he ran out the back door.

"Malia, there you are!" he cried out, jogging over to them.

His sudden movements startled her though and she dove behind Stiles, hands tangling in his shirt.

"Hey Mr. Tate, uh-"

Shit," Mr. Tate muttered under his breath, "Sorry, I forgot, fast movements startle you. I was just worried, you keep disappearing on me, you don't tell me where you go. I keep getting scared that I'll lose you again."

Malia whimpered and looked up at Stiles, "Too fast."

Stiles held up a hand to slow her father down before shifting to look at the girl hiding behind him. "When you leave, he worries. You don't tell him when you go outside and he thinks you got lost again. It scares him, understand?"

She blinked a few times, not really understanding why she needed to tell this man- Dad- when she left. But she did understand that he was scared for her, and that next time she was supposed to tell him when she left. "Sorry. Will tell you next time D-dad."

There was a moment of silence as Malia slowly came out from behind Stiles, although she still held onto his shirt with one hand. When it appeared that her dad had calmed down, she moved on to the next subject. "Get tent, outside."

"What?"

"Get tent, stay outside," Malia smiled.

"She wants to buy a tent, so that way she can be outside more, where she is more comfortable," Stiles explained.

Mr. Tate sighed, "Malia, why do you want to be outside? You've been lost in those woods for years, you barely remember how to be a girl, I'd think that you'd never want to step foot in there again."

As he spoke, his voice rose of its own accord, his frustration peaking, causing Malia to shrink back again.

"Mr. Tate, I-" Stiles started, before being interrupted.

"And another thing, who are you, just appearing with my daughter after all this time. I know you're the Sheriff's son, but that doesn't give you any right to go traipsing through the woods with my innocent little girl!"

Stiles gaped, mouth opening and closing, this was not how he had hoped this would go. Before he could say anything in his defense, Malia spoke up, angry.

"Stiles is nice! He feed me, talk with me! I like outside, air, birds, crickets… Inside is… Inside is… strange! No like! Want to stay outside! Tent!"

Stiles reached out and grabbed her hand, calming her down, "Easy Malia, it's okay, no need to yell. Use your words, complete sentences."

Malia huffed, she really didn't understand why she had to use 10 words when 3 would suffice! Human's mode of speaking was just not efficient at all, she missed being a coyote! But, she knew Stiles was trying to help, and she was supposed to be a big girl now, she was a teenager! If she threw a fit, then she might not get what she wanted, she had learned that long ago; it may have worked that way in the wild, but this was home now… even if it didn't feel like it. So she started again.

"I like outside, outside is, is like home for me. I like, the air, and the birds talking, and the bugs, all of it. Inside house, is too quiet, too," she gestured with her hands, making them press in on herself, "too close! Outside, there is space," she punctuated her statement by opening her arms wide and spinning in a circle. "Tent would let me stay outside, and be in a shelter, please."

"I really think it would be a great compromise Mr. Tate. I can't imagine how the last few days have been for you or Malia. After 8 years… that's a lot of time to overcome. She is used to being in the woods, she feels like that is home now, can you imagine living in such an open place for years, then being told you have to stay in one spot, with walls around you that don't smell like home? At least with a tent, you could know that she's safe when she's sleeping, and Malia, do you promise to always tell your dad when you want to go for a walk?"

"Promise," Malia nodded. "Please tent," she asked beseechingly.

Mr. Tate dropped his shoulders, "I'll talk to the therapist about it. If she thinks it's a good idea, then we can get you a tent."

Malia yipped in excitement and jumped around the yard, she'd get to stay outside! As the two guys watched her jumping around, Stiles's phone went off, causing the teen to slap his forehead.

"Damn, I forgot to call Scott, I bet that's him." Stiles pulled his phone out and answered it. "Hello. Hey Scotty, sorry I didn't call sooner. Yea I found her, she's back at her house now. No, she was perfectly fine, just felt like going for a walk, didn't tell her dad she was going out. Oh yea, I'm surprised she didn't run away from me either. Is that Dad I hear? Could you tell him I'll be home in a bit, I've got to walk back to my Jeep and then I'll be on my way. Thanks man, see you later."

As he was putting his phone away, Mr. Tate walked over to him, "You were out looking for her?"

"Yea, not to like intrude or anything, Scott was at the hospital when he heard you talking about how Malia is always disappearing and you were worried about her. So being the good citizens we are, we split up and looked for her. You know, just to make sure she was safe."

He nodded his head, "Well thanks, sorry for what I said a moment ago, I'm just… stressed and worried. What if… what if someone else had found her… some predator?"

Stiles turned and looked back at Malia as she ran around, knowing that her primal side was just under the surface, "I think she can take care of herself. She did survive all those years on her own. She's a tough girl Mr. Tate."

"I know she is, but she's still just a girl, still so innocent; there is so much she doesn't understand. Hell you're the first person that she's really even talked to besides me. And I get the feeling she only talks to me is because she has to. So it's all short, clipped sentences. She doesn't talk to her therapist, just sits there and, growls. Now only did you get her to talk, you got her to use full sentences. How?"

The younger male shrugged, "I honestly have no idea."


	2. Counseling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles talks to his Dad about maybe having Malia talk to Ms. Morrell- she knows about supernatural stuff right? But how will the actual appointment go, will Malia like her?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick thing, I tried to find any reference to Malia's sister's name... couldn't find it, so in this fic, her sister is going to be named Kaya (which means sister haha). Just wanted to tell everyone to avoid confusion.

-Stilinski home-

"Hey Dad, Scott, I'm back," Stiles called out as he came in the front door.

"How did it go, I know you couldn't really say much over the phone," Scott asked from the living room.

"Not bad in some ways, could have gone better in others. Malia didn't run away at the sight of me, which was good. I kinda bribed her with some food, but it worked. So we had an early lunch out in the woods and I offered to walk her home and talk with her dad. Malia really likes being out in the woods you know, it's like her home. She feels too confined inside her house, says she can't smell the fresh air, or hear the birds and it bothers her. So I mentioned maybe getting her a tent, so she can sleep out in the yard, Mr. Tate will know that she's at least safe. And I even got Malia to promise to at least tell her dad the next time she wants to go for a walk."

Scott and the Sheriff both stared at Stiles, eyes wide.

"What? Why are you staring at me? Do I have ketchup on my face?" the teen asked, wiping his face.

"No, no, it's just… you got all of that from Malia?" John asked. "As in, she spoke with you."

Stiles shrugged, "Well yea, why wouldn't she?"

"Maybe because she doesn't like talking to anyone," Scott laughed. "Mom was telling me about how she hasn't said a word to her therapist, just sits in the corner and growls at her. Which of course is scaring the therapist but considering we know the truth, we're more worried that she might… lash out."

Stiles shook his head, "Malia won't do that, she's just scared… can you imagine being shuttled to this strange place and being forced into a room with some strange lady asking you questions that you can't talk about? I'm not surprised she's defensive. She can't even tell her dad the truth you know, he might lock her away and just say she went crazy."

John and Scott looked at each other, knowing Stiles was right; that was why they told Malia to keep quiet about it in the first place. They knew it wasn't going to be easy for her, but truthfully, they hadn't been expecting it to be this hard. In order for Malia to start behaving normally, she had to open up, but she couldn't really do that when she had a huge secret.

"Hey, Dad, why don't you call Mr. Tate, tell him that you know a counselor that might be able to help Malia. That she's very patient and good with traumatized teenagers," Stiles blurted out suddenly.

"Well I could, but who exactly would I be sending her to?"

"Ms. Morrell, and she knows all about werewolves and such, so Malia would actually be able to talk about her time in the woods, the real story."

Scott clapped his hands together, "God, Stiles you are a genius! I never even thought about Ms. Morrell. She'd be perfect… although she can be a little shady, I don't know if I'd want Malia to be alone with her, you know what I mean?"

Why not?" John asked.

"Well, she can be kinda intense, and very, obtuse when it comes to giving advice. I can see how she might end up confusing Malia even more. She… she doesn't take sides and believes in maintaining the balance, so if she knows something about Malia that we don't, who knows what she might say. And she's a big fan of keeping things to herself until she's backed up against a wall, then she'll still only tell you the bare minimum. Totally frustrating," Stiles explained, walking over to the couch and sitting down.

"Yea, it is, but we also can't deny that she's been helpful when we really needed someone. And we don't really need supernatural help with this, we need a therapist, but at least a therapist that won't assume Malia is crazy. So Ms. Morrell has no reason to be, obtuse about helping Malia," Scott countered.

"Well, it can't hurt to try, I'll call Ms. Morrell first and see if she'll actually talk with the girl. Then if she agrees, I can call Mr. Tate and suggest it to him. That's the best we can hope for right now," John told them, already walking to his office to make some calls.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Scott sat down next to his best friend, "Do you really think Malia won't hurt anyone? I mean, she was pretty scared and nervous when she first changed back, but if we start forcing this stuff on her, she might freak out and go coyote."

"I get that it's a valid thing to be worried about, but I don't think Malia will. Ms. Morrell might push her a bit, to get her to talk, but even if Malia does coyote-out on her, I think Ms. Morrell knows how to handle herself. I'd be more worried about her hurting Malia, that poor girl needs someone she can talk to you know?"

"Well, she has you apparently," Scott told him, patting his friend on the back.

-Tate home-

Malia could hear her dad talking on the phone although she wasn't particularly interested in who he might be talking with. Just as long as he talked with that lady so she could get her tent. She sat on her bed, looking out the window and thought of Stiles; he was really nice, and gentle around her. But he didn't baby her, and she really appreciated that, she wasn't a baby! Her dad always seemed to forget that, he was either treating her like a little girl, or like an adult, like he couldn't make up his mind. Malia was smart enough to admit to herself that she wasn't an adult, not really, she was barely a teen after all. But just because she wasn't an adult, and she wasn't used to being around humans, didn't mean she was a baby either! She growled in frustration, she'd never really be able to explain it to him either, she had to keep everything a secret. It wasn't hard to understand why, he'd probably hate her if he found out that she was the reason that Mom and Kaya were dead. She could barely live with that as it was, she couldn't expect her dad to still love her if she admitted something like that.

It wasn't long before she felt the tears rolling down her face, the images of her mother and sister burned into her memory, knowing that she was responsible. Not wanting to alert her dad, she grabbed her pillow and stuffed her face into it, letting out her sobs. It was a few minutes before she felt the wave of remorse pass, at least enough that she could quiet her sobs. She wiped her eyes with the back of hand, thinking of just one more good thing about being a coyote- you didn't shed any tears. Now she was sitting on her old bed, sniffling, with puffy eyes and she just felt miserable. Shaking her head, she tried to rid her mind of the awful memories, tried to bring back the memories of just being in the forest, of being free.

But instead her mind went back to Stiles, she remembered how easy it was to just be with him. She couldn't quite explain it to herself, she had no reason to feel any safer around him than any other human. It had to be because he didn't try to push himself into her personal space, not like her dad did. It's true that she missed him, and that deep down she loved him, but after all those years being away from him, it had become too hard to face him. Now that she was back in the house, he always wanted to hug her, talk to her, and Malia didn't know how to do those things any more. But with Stiles, he just stayed still –mostly- and let her be the one to determine how close they got. He didn't demand conversation from her, Stiles was more than happy to just be the one talking, but could still respect when she wanted silence. How was it that he seemed to understand her so much after just one afternoon?

Even when she had run into him at the old car in her other form, he picked up on the fact that she wanted the doll back, that he shouldn't be holding it. So he gave it back, and he had stopped that wolf from attacking her, which was considerate of him, knowing that as a coyote she could have eaten his face. There was just something about him that didn't make her hackles raise, and that was a first for her. Down the hall, she could still hear her father on the phone, and she had just managed to pick up 'hold on a minute, I'll go ask her,' before she wiped her face once more went back to looking out the window.

There was a quiet knock on her door before her dad opened it, phone held against his shoulder, "Hey Malia, Sheriff Stilinski says that he knows a good counselor, she's worked with a lot of traumatized kids around your age. He knows you've been having trouble with Miss Thomas, would you like to try this new lady?"

Malia concentrated on what he was saying, glad that he had remembered to speak slowly. It was true that she didn't like Miss Thomas, she smelled nervous and nervous meant unhonest in her mind. Besides, she had to keep everything a secret, so there was no point in telling that lady anything. But if Sheriff Stilinski was suggesting someone new, did that mean she knew about the secret? But she couldn't really be sure, and what if this new lady wasn't nice? It was all too much for her, she frowned up at her dad, unsure what to say to him. Malia could see in his eyes that he wanted to help her, but didn't know how. He was clearly hoping this new lady would work out. So what did she have to lose? Nothing really, but she couldn't go alone this time.

"Stiles come too?" she finally asked. "Don't want to go alone. Stiles is nice."

Malia realized that she had upset her dad by asking that, the way his face just dropped, but she had no idea what she said wrong, so she waited for him to speak. But instead of saying anything to her, he relayed the question to the person on the other line. After a brief pausing, he turned back to her and affirmed that Stiles would go to the appointment with her.

"Thank you."

"Of course Sweetie."

After the door closed, Malia played back the short conversation in her head, needing to know what she said wrong. She had agreed to go, she didn't throw a fit… all she wanted to know was if Stiles could go with her. And that was when Dad looked sad… Did he not like Stiles? Thinking back to a few hours ago, she remembered how he'd gotten mad at Stiles for being in the woods with her, even if he was being nice. That was probably it, he didn't like Stiles, and that made her sad. But, she needed him to go with her, she just felt, calmer, knowing that he'd be there. That should be enough for Dad, and hopefully this new lady would be okay with it too.

Deciding that she could take much more of this silence, she walked to the back door, remembering at the last minute to tell Dad she was going outside.

"Dad, going to sit outback."

"Okay, don't wander too far away, I'll call you when dinner is ready."

Satisfied with his response, she opened the back door and laid out on the grass, letting the afternoon sun warm her skin. She stayed like that, just listening to the world, until it was finally time for dinner. Malia prayed that is wasn't anything to spiced up this time.

-Stilinski home-

"Okay, I called Ms. Morrell, and Mr. Tate, Malia has an appointment tomorrow at 3:45. I've also called Coach Finstock and got you out of practice tomorrow Stiles," John announced, coming back into the living room.

"Alright! Wait, why?" Stiles asked, suspicious.

"Because you're going to go to the counseling session with Malia tomorrow," he answered, matter-of-factly.

Stiles just stared at his dad. "Why?"

"Stiles, she specifically asked if you could go, she obviously doesn't want to go to meet some new person by herself. And Malia has said more to you voluntarily than she's ever said to anyone else. For some reason, she trusts you, so you're going."

"Okay, okay, I'll go. It's just a little weird is all. But if she asked me to go, I'll go. Is it going to be at the school?"

"Yea, we all figured that 3:45 would be late enough that most of the students would have left already and they wouldn't make her feel any more nervous that she already does. You could probably meet her out front with Ms. Morrell and go from there."

"Alright, let's hope Ms. Morrell can get more out of her than that other lady did," Stiles sighed. Secretly he felt a little glad that Malia wanted him to be there with her; he was more than a little nervous about leaving anyone alone with Ms. Morrell, let alone a girl as lost Malia.

-Monday, after school-

Stiles wished Scott luck at practice and went out to his Jeep, since he had some time to kill he figured he might try and get some work done. He pulled his English book out of his bag and climbed into the front, casually tossing the book bag onto the backseat. Flipping open the book, Stiles started to read the assigned chapters, vaguely wondering how many laps Coach was making the team run today. Three short pages later, Stiles tossed the book back into his bag and huffed, he was way too nervous to read right now. So instead, out came his phone and he played Angry Birds for the next 20 minutes; after he got frustrated to the point of almost throwing his phone he looked up and saw Ms. Morrell standing out at the drop-off zone of the parking lot. Guess it was time to go wait for Malia to get here; Stiles took a deep breath and got out of his car. As he walked away, he wondered if maybe he should bring his back pack with him but decided against it.

"If anyone wants to break into my Jeep for my homework, they can freakin' have it!" Stiles muttered, "As long as they don't scratch my baby."

"Good afternoon Stiles," Ms. Morrell greeted as he stood next to her.

"Hey, thanks for seeing Malia on such short notice. I'm sure this will be better for her."

Marin studied him, "Why do you think that?"

"Well, you're a counselor and Malia needs counsel. You just also happen to be aware of the supernatural going-ons in Beacon Hills, so her secret doesn't have to be a secret in these sessions. Right?" Stiles asked, suddenly afraid she had something else in mind.

"So this isn't because you, or maybe Scott, want to find out more about Malia and her transformations?" Marin asked, brow raised.

Stiles gaped at her, unsure of what the counselor was really trying to get at… he just wanted to help Malia get better, and Scott hadn't even thought of coming to Ms. Morrell. But before he could ask any of the hundreds of questions that just sprang up, a car pulled up, Malia in the passenger seat. As soon as her eyes landed on Stiles, she broke out in a grin and climbed out of the car. Well, she tried to, but she forgot about the seat belt and ended up tugging on the confining material.

"Hold on Malia," Mr. Tate said, reaching over and unbuckling her, flinching as the metal clasp flung around and pinged against the side of the door.

"Hi Stiles!" Malia chirped, standing next to him.

"Hey Malia, feeling good?" Stiles asked.

Malia nodded her head, beaming; she was outside in the fresh air, of course she was good. But then Stiles gestured to the lady standing next to him and Malia came crashing down, she had to pretend to like this woman…

"Malia, this is Ms. Morrell, she's a counselor here at the school. She's helped me and my friends through a lot of hard times, I think you might like her," Stiles introduced.

"Hello Malia, it's nice to meet you," Marin said, as soon as Stiles finished.

Malia took a small step back, nostrils flaring as she attempted to catch the woman's scent; when she did, she was confused. She smelled earthy, and powerful, instantly calling up images of trees and dirt. It was slightly confusing, she had never met a human with this scent before, but she had to be human, she definitely didn't smell like a wolf or any other creature.

"Stiles, why don't you go ahead and take her to my office while I talk with Mr. Tate for just a moment okay?"

"Yea, sure."

Stiles gestured for Malia to follow him, but she was obviously hesitant to turn her back on this stranger; they ended up doing an awkward crab shuffle all the way to the doors of the school. Once they were inside though, Malia's attention shot to her surroundings, fearfully stepping closer to Stiles.

"Many smells, lots of people stay here," Malia said, hands finding their way to the back of Stiles's shirt.

"Well this is school, remember school from when you were younger? You learn all sorts of things like math and science, play sports maybe."

Malia took a few small steps into the large building, letting Stiles slowly steer her in the right direction as she took everything in. "Remember school, a little bit. I liked… rocks and min…minerals- Earth science!"

"Yea, that stuff is fun, chemistry sucks though. But you won't have to deal with that any time soon. Here's the office, let's go sit okay?"

Malia nodded, sitting seemed okay, even if it was in a small room- at least she wasn't alone.

"Hey Malia, I just want you to know, Ms. Morrell, she knows about your secret, and Scott's secret too. She's safe, so you can tell her the truth okay?"

"Is, is that why Sheriff say to come here instead of Miss Thomas?" Malia asked, eyes brimming with curiosity.

"Yea, we figure this way, you can tell her the real stuff and she can help you; since you know, you couldn't tell the truth to the other lady."

Stiles could see Malia relax just a bit with that knowledge, at least this lady wouldn't call her crazy, and maybe she could help. But Malia didn't know what to talk about… what was wrong with her that she needed to talk to this new lady?

"Okay, are we ready to get started?" Marin asked, suddenly appearing in the classroom, startling both the teenagers.

Malia's hands fidgeted in her lap while Ms. Morrell sat down and studied the girl, "Malia, do you know why you're here today?"

Malia whimpered, already feeling nervous around this woman; as Marin continued to scrutinize her though, Malia's hackles raised and she growled quietly. Marin didn't react at all, just continued to stare. Stiles intervened, knowing that Ms. Morrell was up to something already.

"Malia, it's okay, remember, she wants to help you. But you have to talk to her okay. She's looking at you because she's waiting for an answer, she isn't challenging you. She is just giving you her undivided attention."

Malia huffed, not liking this 'undivided attention' as Stiles put it; the way those eyes studied her…it made her feel like she was a bug, about to get eaten. But, Stiles was here with her, and she wanted to get better… whatever that meant…

"Here to talk," Malia stated.

"Talk about what exactly?"

"I… I don't know."

"No one has told you why you should see a counselor?"

Malia thought back for a moment, trying to remember what the doctors had said. "For my head, to make sure inside my head is okay," she answered slowly. "Why would the inside of my head be bad?"

Marin smiled briefly at the girl, glad that she was being honest and not hiding her confusion, "Well, our minds can be very fragile, sometimes they are easy to break and very hard to fix. And you were out there alone for 8 years, with no one to talk to. That can make some people broken on the inside, and I'm here to make sure that you are okay."

"Broken how?"

"Well, sometimes, when a person is alone for too long, they forget how to talk with others. Was it hard for you to learn how to speak again?"

"A little bit. Still… learning," Malia admitted, tilting her head. She was intrigued by this lady, but at least she was able to answer Malia's questions.

"For some people, it's very hard, learning how to talk again. Other people, they start talking to themselves, to keep away the quiet They can create friends, which they talk to so they don't feel alone. Then when they are with people again, they have trouble understanding what is real and what isn't," Marin explained slowly… she knew that there was so much more that happened to people that were isolated, but this seemed like the easiest way to explain it all to the young girl.

When Malia had fully processed the words, she turned towards Stiles, suddenly afraid that he wasn't real, and that's why Dad was so upset with her bringing him here. "Stiles?"

"Stiles is very real, don't worry Malia. I don't think you have that problem. See when humans get isolated, certain things happen to their minds. But you… you didn't spend that time as a human did you?"

She shook her head, "No, I was a coyote."

"Yes, so for you it is different. Other people, start having a hard time figuring out what might be real, or what isn't real. But for you, your problem is going to be much different. You have to learn how to be a human again."

"Be human? I am," she stated, holding up her hands and wiggling her fingers, in slight disdain.

Marin shook her head, "You're human on the outside, but are you human on the inside?"

Malia watched as Ms. Morrell tapped her head, getting the point across. On the inside, in her mind, she still wanted to be a coyote. She growled when she was scared or angry, she was always sniffing everything- walking around on two feet didn't feel right! But her body wasn't shaped properly to let her walk on all fours again. "What if… what if I want to stay coyote?"

"You can learn to be human, and coyote, like Scott, or Derek. Just because you are one, doesn't mean you can't also be the other. Don't you want to make friends? Aren't you tired of being alone? As a coyote, you didn't make friends, and everything was an enemy or it was food. But as a human, you can make friends, not everything is an enemy."

Malia brought her feet up onto the chair and wrapped her arms around her legs, this was too much already. How could she be a coyote and a human? She either had her fur or she had thumbs, there was no both! "No, don't…understand. Want… coyote!"

Stiles knew that Malia was close to the edge, her speech was sounding more rushed and unsure, but Marin kept pushing.

"Why do you want to be a coyote so bad? Why not human, like Stiles? What is bad about humans?"

"Stop!" Malia yelled, covering her ears with her hands. All these questions… being human was bad, weak! As a coyote, she was fast, agile, brave. As a human, she was scared, defenseless, useless. She couldn't hunt in this body, her senses weren't as sharp, her teeth were dull! Useless! Coyotes were better, they didn't have human memories… Memories...Thoughts from back when she had first transformed, all the horrible memories flooding into the front of her mind. She had been terrified and in pain, nothing was the same, and there was screaming, so much screaming! She remembered the crash and the blood, remembered not really knowing what was happening…

"Malia, what is so bad about being human?" Marin pressed, ignoring Malia's obvious distress.

"I think she's had enough…" Stiles tried to intervene, but Marin held up her hand… she could tell the girl was close to admitting the root of the problem. As much as it was hurting her now, the sooner they opened this wound, the sooner it would heal. It wasn't hard to imagine what was bothering Malia… what horrible memory plagued her, the memories she tried to escape by staying a coyote.

Malia, you have to tell me, why would a coyote be better?"

"Because! Because then no more bad memories! Coyote have no family, coyote alone! Keep self safe, no one else! Coyote strong, human weak, humans die… I killed them!" she finally cried out, her mind racing… she didn't even remember the question, all she knew was that she couldn't stop thinking about her mom, about Kaya. She stood up, knocking the chair to the floor and started whimpering and snarling.

"I killed them! Dead! All dead! Coyote can't hurt Dad! Malia hurt DAD!" she wailed, crashing to the floor on her knees. She was afraid, she was going to hurt Dad this time. She knew, as a coyote to stay away from people, people were dangerous… as a person, she was living with Dad… what if she changed again and hurt him this time? Every time she saw Dad, she saw Kaya, Mom… she saw the tears in his eyes. She could smell his sadness, it clung to him like mud, there was no getting rid of it. Just by coming home, she hurt him and it wasn't her fault, she hadn't wanted to come home at all!

Stiles couldn't take it anymore, he slid down to the floor and cradled Malia, calling out her name in hushed tones. She clung desperately to him, fingers digging into his arms as she sobbed. The whole time Marin stayed behind the desk and just watched, taking in everything. It was awhile before Malia's sobs quieted down, and Marin suggested that maybe they go out to the lacrosse field, let Malia get some fresh air.

"Yea, that's a good idea, but what about Mr. Tate, won't he be back to pick her up soon?" Stiles asked, slowly helping the younger girl to her feet.

"I'll need to talk with him, and he knows how to find my office, so that will give you two some time. Mr. Tate and I will come get you after we've talked about everything."

Stiles nodded, "Hey Malia, does outside sound good?"

A pitiful whimper met his ears but Malia nodded her head, so he carefully led her to the back of the school and out onto the field. Malia lifted her head when she felt the little breeze, but paused when she saw the boys all running around.

"It's okay, they won't bother us, we can go sit on the grass way over there and just watch," he suggested, leading her further away from the racket. The more steps they took, the calmer Malia became, taking deep steadying breaths; they sat, Malia not really watching the practice but looking up at the clouds instead.

"Aww, come on Scott, Danny was wide open, how did you miss that?" Stiles muttered under his breath after awhile, startling his companion.

Malia couldn't help but tense, Scott is the one that made this happen, she didn't want him coming over here to try and talk with her. But she did look over at the field, watching the small ball get tossed back and forth. "Playing what?" she finally asked, not liking the quiet… it gave her time to think.

"It's called lacrosse, I'm on the team too actually. It's a lot of fun, but I'm not very good at it. Scott has gotten way better since the, you know, the Bite. Totally not fair in my opinion, now I have nobody to warm the bench with."

Malia watched, intrigued as to what the point was, but she supposed fun didn't need to have a point. How many times had she chased butterflies around, snapping at them, but not really trying to catch them? She was sure she probably looked silly to any humans watching, so this probably wasn't any different.

"Do… do you want to talk about it Malia? Because I'll listen; only if you want. I just.. I just want you to know that you can talk to me too, and not just Ms. Morrell okay?" Stiles told her, looking at her, hoping she understood.

"No talk now about it, head… mind hurts, heart hurts. But Stiles is… friend? We talk later about stuff?"

"Yea, we're friends, and we can talk whenever you want to, promise," Stiles smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the correct word is dishonest, but I'm sticking with 'unhonest' for awhile, at least when it comes to being inside Malia's thoughts. I don't plan on using too many grammatical errors when it comes to her thoughts/speech, but clearly her grasp of the language isn't going to be perfect. And I want the reader to remember that, so I'm including the errors in her thoughts and not just her speech. Just wanted to prepared everyone for that, hope it isn't distracting. Also I know that most of Malia's thoughts are blended together or jump from topic to topic and that can be confusing... I want to capture Malia's frame of mind, but I'll do my best to have Stiles or Marin explain in their own words about what Malia is feeling. So if you can't quite understand all of Malia's thoughts/words, just be a little patient and it will be explained later (in the very next chapter this time, I promise) in fuller/more complete sentences. If you have any questions, feel free to message me =)


	3. Visiting Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles talks with Ms. Morrell after Malia and her father head home. Apparently it's a good idea for them to spend more time together. Stiles gets a few answers out of her, but he still has a lot of questions. Not that he has time to focus on that, he has to figure out how to entertain Malia in the morning! Cute fluffy scene to follow once Malia shows up.

-Counselor's Office-

There was a quiet knock on the door, right on time, "Come in."

Mr. Tate walked into the room and looked around, alarmed that his daughter wasn't here.

Marin spoke, calming him, "I asked Stiles to take Malia outside, so that way we could talk. Please sit."

"That means it either went well, or awful…"

Marin smiled, "I think it went well. The session didn't last long, it didn't take Malia long to just break down. I can't go into details about what happened," Marin explained, holding up a hand when Mr. Tate opened his mouth. "I know she is a minor, and that you're her father, but the fact remains that this is a delicate situation. I think it is best that you don't ask her too many questions about how the session went. I don't think she's ready to talk to you about it, honestly she only admitted it in here because she became overwhelmed. When I feel like she is better able to handle the stress, we can have a family session and the two of you can discuss everything, is that reasonable?"

"Yea, I think so. But you promise if something… bad comes up, you'll tell me?"

"Like thoughts of suicide? I am required to report, at my discretion, if a patient is becoming a threat to themselves or others. If Malia is feeling that way, I'll be sure to enlist your help in lifting her up. But I think she's just very confused and lost, 8 years is a long time."

"Yea, you're telling me… But as long as she's talking to someone, I'm happy. I don't know what makes you different, but I'm glad she opened up. That's more than she ever did with Miss Thomas. I'll have to thank the Sheriff for recommending you."

"I think… Stiles had a lot to do with it. It might pain you to hear this but, Malia… she needs someone her own age to talk to, she is a teenager after all. Mentally she may be a little behind, but her mind has also chemically developed, she's isn't quite trapped as a nine year old. So she can identify with Stiles, in some ways, that she just isn't comfortable with you or me. I think it would be a good idea for her to spend more time with him; I can vouch that he's smart and responsible. I think just by being around him, Malia will start to open up and be more comfortable around people. We don't want to push her too quickly, but seeing as how she has already become attached to him, it wouldn't hurt to use that friendship."

"Do you think that's a good idea? I mean… I'm sure Stiles is a great kid, but… he's a boy. Shouldn't she be hanging out with, you know, a girl?" Mr. Tate asked.

"I don't think that's completely necessary, not if she's comfortable around him. Once she starts to become more relaxed, we'll start introducing her to more and more people, but she will be easily overwhelmed if we move too fast. Let's just take it slow and be glad that she's even made one friend."

Mr. Tate nodded, "Yea, okay. So, you want her to hang out with Stiles more, how will that work?"

"Well, after you leave, I can talk with Stiles and see what he's open too, he has to be willing to commit to this as well. After we talk, I'll call you and let you know the situation."

"Okay, that's reasonable. And you think he'll be up for it?"

Marin smiled again, "Let's go get Malia."

-Outside-

Malia smiled at Stiles, "Friend."

Malia felt warm inside, hearing Stiles agree that they were friends… Maybe Ms. Morrell was right, being alone isn't always fun. She knew that if something were bothering her, Stiles would help her out, she wasn't on her own anymore.

"Thank you, for being friend," Malia whispered, leaning over and hugging Stiles's arm. She ducked her head as she leaned in, but Stiles still caught the distraught look on her face.

"Hey, what's wrong Malia?" he asked.

"I… I don't think Dad likes you…"

Stiles frowned, "What makes you say that?"

Malia took a deep breath, preparing herself for the long explanation, "Well, I asked for you to come to meeting with me. Dad looked sad, but still asked. Stiles come because new lady make me nervous… Don't want to go alone. I, thought Dad would be happy; I didn't throw a fit, or cry- I agreed to come…"

"You'd come if I came with you. So when your dad asked if you'd meet with Ms. Morrell, that's when you asked if I could come too?"

"Yea, and he got sad face. Did I say wrong thing? Dad not like you? Stiles is friend now… why Dad no like?"

Stiles thought for a moment, trying to picture the scene as Malia explained it; he was sure that Mr. Tate wanted to help his daughter, He was probably a little dubious about how Ms. Morrell would be any better than the previous therapist, but it couldn't hurt to keep trying. Malia agreed to go, with no problems, but asked if he could accompany her… And that's when he got upset, but he didn't tell Malia why. Then it dawned on him; he had seen that face before, on his own dad.

"Malia, I think your dad got sad for a different reason. Did his face look like this?" Stiles asked.

When Malia turned to look at him, Stiles did his best impression of his father's sad, disappointed face. Mouth was turned down on one side and his eyes were downcast and slightly closed, then he let out a deep sigh.

"Yes, like that. How you know?" Malia said.

"My dad made that face when I went to therapy…"

"Stiles go to talk too?" Malia wondered, small frown pulling at her lips.

"Yea, my mom died a few years ago, actually it was around the time you uh, disappeared. I was always sad, I couldn't eat, and I started worrying about my dad dying. That was when the panic attacks started. So I went to therapy, and I was like you, nervous about going… what was I going to tell some stranger? How could I make them understand what I was feeling inside?"

"Yes!" Malia agreed.

"I found out that just talking, about everything going on in your head, and in your heart, it helps. Even if you have a hard time putting it into words, talking about it helps you figure everything out. But when I went to therapy, I asked if Scotty could go with me. He's my best friend you know, we've been together since 1st grade. I figured, if Scott was with me, I had no reason to be afraid."

"And Sheriff made sad face?"

"Yep. I didn't know what it was at first either. But later, I found out that it was because he was sad… sad that I didn't ask him to go. If I needed someone to go with me, why didn't I ask him? Family is supposed to help each other out in times like these. But he knew that someone my own age would be better for me, someone that wasn't family. It… it can be hard to talk about your feelings around your family," Stiles explained.

Malia nodded, "Easier talk with friends."

"Yea, a lot easier. So I think your dad was just sad too, because he wants to help you get better. But in order to do that, he has to let you go, he can't always be by your side, does that make sense?"

Stiles watched as Malia took in his words, teeth chewing her lip as she thought. After awhile she nodded and smiled at him.

"Just happy Dad no not like you," she admitted. "I explain to Dad about friend and talking," Malia decided, wanting Dad to understand. She didn't like it when he was sad. Happy with Stiles's explanation, she leaned her head back down against his arm, getting comfortable.

Stiles just nodded and ran his fingers through her hair, he knew that Scott loved that, so he wasn't surprised when Malia sighed contentedly. He was glad that she had decided to tell him about her dad; he didn't want her to be worried about their friendship. It wouldn't do to have Malia thinking that she couldn't be friends with Stiles and then get even worse because of it. And she was going to try and explain it to Mr. Tate as well, and Stiles knew that her dad would reassure her. They were sitting like that, Stiles still playing with her hair, when Ms. Morrell and Mr. Tate came outside to get them.

"Malia, you're dad is here," Marin called out.

Malia sighed but stood up and walked over, not really feeling all that eager to go home. She waved to Stiles and Marin and then followed her dad back to the car; Marin waited until they had driven away before asking Stiles to come back inside. Once they were seating in her office again, she explained what was going on.

"Stiles, I talked with Mr. Tate and we feel like you should spend more time with Malia. You are obviously the only person she's close to right now and we don't want to ruin that. We feel like you could really help her come out of her shell. I'm going to talk with the principal and see if I can at least get you out of classes this week. Not sure how Coach Finstock would feel about you missing practices though."

"Wow, you really want to help her don't you? I mean, if you think I can help… I'm all for it. But what about when the week is up, what are we going to do?" Stiles asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. What I'm going to have you do though, is slowly start getting her used to being around people… just Scott and the others, not large groups. If we can get her used to being around more than just one person at a time, that's good."

"And what are we supposed to do in the mean time? I mean Scott and all of them are still going to be in school, so that's like… 8 hours. Well, I guess that depends on what time Malia and I actually start hanging out."

"I'm sure she'll be excited to come over first thing in the morning, so don't plan on sleeping in. Do whatever she feels comfortable with, but don't be afraid to push her comfort level, at least a little bit."

"Like riding in the car with me, or having her speak full sentences, stuff like that?"

Marin nodded, "Yes, and maybe even read to her, or have her try to read. Find new things for her to enjoy besides running in the forest. The sooner she finds more human hobbies, the sooner she'll be able to adapt."

"Gotcha." Stiles stood up, getting ready to leave. "Wait… can we talk about what happened? In the session I mean?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Well, I mean, Malia did… kill her mom and sister right? And she remembers that… Is there any way she'll get over that?"

"No, but she can come to terms with it. Her eyes are blue now, it will be with her the rest of her life, but she needs to let the guilt go. I'm hoping that by getting her to talk about it, she'll realize that she wasn't in control of what happened."

"You think that when she is open to being 'human' that she'll realize that coyote part of her was in control?"

"Maybe, I know it took Scott awhile to come to terms with what his wolf wanted him to do. Malia, in her young mind, couldn't cope with the memories of what happened and in order to escape them, stayed in her shifted form."

Stiles slowly nodded his head, "That makes sense I guess, she was only 9, that's a lot to try and deal with… I get that she wanted to run away from all that. But what was she talking about when she said that she hurt her dad?"

Marin sighed, "She probably meant a few different things. She's afraid she's going to hurt him, like she hurt the rest of her family. She's probably even more afraid that he'll find out the truth and be mad at her; as estranged as they are, she still loves her father. It would be devastating if he shut her out. Then there is the fact that Mr. Tate… he's still hurting; all these years later, he finds out his daughter has been alive. It's amazing, but by seeing her… he's reminded once more of what he lost. Who he knows for a fact won't come back to him. Whenever he looks at her, he probably feels an overwhelming sense of grief."

"And Malia picks up on that, with her Were-senses. She probably doesn't fully understand, but she knows that just by being around Mr. Tate, she's causing him to be sad. Poor Malia," Stiles said, looking down at his hands.

"Exactly. That's why I want you to help her out as much as you can. If she wants to talk to you about her feelings, that's fine, I trust that you know how to deal with that. Just don't force her to talk-"

"Like you did!"

"I'm a professional, it's okay if she gets mad at me, you're her friend, you need to be gentle. And that wound needed to be opened, now we can start working on it so it will heal properly," Marin chastised.

"Yea, sure. That was still mean though."

Marin shrugged, "I did what needed to be done. Just like I always do. Any other questions Stiles?"

"No, I guess I'll go home and clean up or something, if Malia is coming over to hang out first thing in the morning… Bye Ms. Morrell."

Stiles walked out to his Jeep and finally messaged Scott, 'So, that was intense… And I get to help socialize Malia, I hope she doesn't mind being stuck with me as her teacher.'

By the time he got home, Scott had replied, 'just don't push her too fast man, we don't need her to go feral on us.'

'Rude Scott… I'm capable! I'll be the best socializer ever, watch me!'

With that, Stiles looked around his room, it wasn't too messy… but what the hell were the two of them going to do all day?

-Tuesday Morning-

The alarm went off, 8 o'clock, time for Stiles to get up and get ready. He groaned as he looked at the time, was it morning already? Ugh… but at least he'd gotten to sleep in for about an hour. And technically he didn't have school at all today, so that was a definite plus. He had about an hour before Malia was supposed to get here, at least according to Ms. Morrell. Time enough to shower and find something to eat, as long as he didn't fall asleep in the shower that is, Stiles was still pretty tired. To keep himself from falling asleep, he went over his options of what to do- there was drawing, maybe reading, what else? Maybe she'd be interested in watching T.V.! Stiles could at least hope. Hell, maybe she'd want to learn how to cook, Stiles could work with that. He might not be a master chef, but he was more than capable of a lot of different dishes. By the time Stiles had started to towel off, his mind had moved on to breakfast, well food in general.

Stiles hurried to get dressed, realizing he'd been in the shower for over thirty minutes; apparently he couldn't wash and brainstorm at the same time. As he toweled off his hair, Stiles decided that he was going to make some pancakes, and maybe even some bacon if Dad hadn't gotten to it this morning. After a quick stop to his room to get some clothes, Stiles bounded down the stairs and went into the kitchen, finding all the necessary ingredients and bowls. Within minutes he was happily humming away as he stirred the batter, pouring himself a couple of large pancakes and then flipped the sizzling bacon. He set out the syrup, butter, and utensils, then plated his food.

"Mmm, it has been too long since I've made pancakes," Stiles muttered to himself as he covered the golden cake in syrup.

He was about halfway through with his breakfast when he heard a car door pull up and the excited yipping meant Malia had arrived. Stiles pushed his chair back and went to answer the door as she started knocking erratically.

"Stiles!"

Stiles had barely even opened the door before it was pushed all the way open and the girl stormed her way inside.

"Malia, Ma-" Mr. Tate sighed, coming up the walkway. "Don't crowd the poor boy," he called, watching as his daughter bounced around the entryway, Stiles's eyes opened wide.

Stiles laughed though and welcomed her, "Good morning Malia."

She finally started to calm down as Mr. Tate reached the doorway, her nostrils flaring as she looked around the hallway. When Stiles nodded his head at her, she took a few tentative steps further inside, exploring the house.

"Thanks for agreeing to do this, Ms. Morrell seems convinced that this is the best way to help her," Mr. Tate said.

"It was a surprise to me, but Ms. Morrell told me that since Malia trusted me, I could really help bring her out of her shell."

"What are you guys going to do today?" Mr. Tate asked, needing to know that his daughter was really going to be safe here.

Stiles shrugged, "I guess it depends on what she wants to do, I mean, I have some art stuff here, don't know if she might want to draw stuff or whatever. We can cook if she's interested I suppose, or maybe even try reading. But we'll definitely be here, I don't to overwhelm her and take her someplace new, ya know?"

"That's a relief, um, here's my number, call if anything comes up or if she wants to come home early," the older man added on, holding out a piece of paper.

"Oh, I feel totally rude, I should probably give you mine, in case you want to call and check up on her. Come in, I'll write it down for you, house and my cell," Stiles gestured, backing up so he could come inside.

Stiles tore off a piece of paper from the notepad by the phone and scribbled down the numbers while Mr. Tate wandered further into the house to say goodbye.

"Malia, what are you doing?" Stiles heard the older man say. He looked up from the paper and saw Mr. Tate standing at the entrance way to the kitchen, mouth set in a frown.

Stiles walked into the kitchen just as she was answering, "Food smell good, I eat."

She was sitting that the table, syrup covering her fingers and the corners of her mouth. Stiles couldn't help but smile as she took another piece of his breakfast and popped it into her mouth.

"I'm sorry, I tried to give her some breakfast but she said she wasn't hungry, she was just so excited to come over," he apologized. "Malia, that was Stiles's breakfast."

Malia face fell, she hadn't realized she was taking food from Stiles, she pushed the plate away, "Sorry." She hadn't thought, out in the wild, if you found food, you ate it before someone else came and took it from you.

"It's okay Malia, I can make more, I still have batter left. If I had known you might be hungry, I would have prepared some for you."

Cautiously, Malia pulled the plate back towards her, waiting for one of them to stop her. But when Stiles smiled at her, she started eating again, glad that he hadn't gotten mad at her for stealing food.

Mr. Tate took the slip of paper from Stiles, shaking his head, "At least try to get her to use a fork… I'll be back around 6 to pick her back up, is that okay?"

"Yea, that will be fine, if we end up eating dinner here, is that okay?" Stiles asked in return.

"That's fine, whatever you want to have, or if she isn't hungry, she can eat when we get back home too."

Stiles went to the fridge while Mr. Tate said bye to his daughter, pulling out the leftover batter. After he left, Malia came up to Stiles, wanting to really make sure he wasn't mad.

"Stiles not mad at me?"

Stiles turned to face her, "No, I promise, not mad. See, I have the stuff to make more pancakes. Although in the future, remember to always ask before you eat food that is sitting out. Some people might not understand that you don't know better."

Malia nodded her head, repeating the instructions, "Always ask before eating at people's house."

"Want to help me make more? Are you still hungry?"

Malia brightened, answering yes to both questions. Stiles had her wash her hands, so that way she wouldn't get syrup on anything and then showed her how to pour the batter.

"And see how it is starting to bubble? That means it's ready to be flipped, so you take the spatula, and slide it underneath and then, you flip!" Stiles explained as he easily flipped the pancake.

Once that one was done, he helped Malia pour the next pancake, congratulating her when it came out in a nice circle. Then he worked on eating the fresh pancake as they waiting for new one to start bubbling.

"Is bubbles," Malia stated seeing that the pancake was ready to flip, but was holding the spatula in two hands looking unsure.

Stiles stood next to her and helped her slide the spatula under the pancake, and then showed her how to turn her wrist to flip it. She held her breath as she slowly lifted the spatula and tilted the pancake; Stiles knew it was going to fold over, it always did when you flipped it too slow, but he wanted her to do it on her own so he didn't step in. As he predicted, it slid of the spatula a little early and the edge of the pancake got folded over, but it landed in the pan so he cheered for her.

"Not right," Malia pouted.

"It happens, you just need practice. Just be happy you landed in the pan, the first time I tried to make these, I flipped it too hard and half of it went on the stove!"

Malia giggled at the story, imagining how messy that must have been; she felt better knowing that for her first flip, it hadn't ended as disastrously as it could have. And since she was in charge of this one, she got it eat it, happily flipping it onto her plate and letting Stiles show her how to use the knife to spread butter on it.

"Now, since the syrup is sticky, you have to eat it with a fork okay? You can take the knife and cut it up into small pieces like this," he explained, cutting a few pieces before handing the utensils to her.

"'K," Malia agreed, awkwardly fumbling with the knife as she tried to copy what he did. Her tongue was sticking out as she concentrated, but after a few attempts, she found a good way to hold the fork and it went faster after that.

"Good?" Stiles asked as she took her first bite, smiling as she did a little dance, waving her hands in small circles as she chewed. Malia nodded, remembering that talking with food in her mouth was rude, Dad had told her that many times.

"Meat too?" Malia asked after she had swallowed, remembering the salty strips that had been on Stiles's plate the first time.

"Oh yea, I can't believe I forgot about the bacon," Stiles said, smacking his forehead.

Malia watched as he pulled a long package out of the refrigerator, licking her lips as he pulled a few strips out.

"I'm sure you don't mind undercooked meat, but I'm sure it isn't too good for your stomach as a human, so we're cooking this. But cooking bacon is a little bit harder, well, cooking it isn't hard, but… well you'll see."

Malia tilted her head as she watched him put the meat in a different pan and turned on the heat. It took longer to cook than the pancakes had, but it smelled so much better, it's aroma filling the kitchen as it heated up. She listened as Stiles explained that you flip the bacon as well, but that you had to be more careful. As the meat started cooking, there was grease, and that got hot very easily and popped; if it got on your skin, it burned. Normally the pops were small, but it still hurt pretty bad since it was so hot. Malia could tell that he was slightly nervous; outwardly he appeared calm, but she could smell just the smallest amount of apprehension on him every time he went to flip it. The first time the bacon let out a loud pop, it startled her, making her growl at the pan in surprise, Stiles smiling a little bit.

"See, bacon likes to bite back," he commented. "That's why they always say, never cook bacon without a shirt on, don't want to burn your tummy."

As the meat cooked longer, Malia started inching towards the pan, wanting to eat it already, but if Stiles said it wasn't done yet, she'd wait. Finally, he started taking them out of the pan and put them on a paper towel, still making her wait to eat them. She grumbled as he pulled a few more pieces off the pain, flinching when the grease popped again.

"Ah, crap," Stiles yelled out, shaking his arm.

Malia whimpered and looked at his arm, touching it to make sure he was okay, and he was quick to reassure her, "It only burns for a little bit, see, it didn't even leave a red mark. It just always surprises me is all."

Malia glared at the pan, blaming it for Stiles's pain, that wasn't very nice! But Stiles didn't appear afraid, going right back to removing the pieces of bacon from the pan. When he slapped her hand away from the plate, Malia questioned why she couldn't eat it yet, well maybe she demanded to know.

"Because it's still hot; I know you have super-healing but you can't really enjoy the flavor if you have burnt taste buds. Don't worry, it will only take a moment to cool. Then you can eat it I promise," Stiles explained. He hadn't even thought about it when he had slapped her hand away, it was just something he was used to doing with Scott and his dad, so when Malia started demanding access to the bacon, he realized she could have easily taken his head off. Thank goodness she really felt comfortable with him, he remembered a few close calls with Scott when he had first been bitten. He had to remind himself to be a little more careful around her; it probably wasn't easy to keep her inner instincts in check if she was overwhelmed. But thankfully, Malia just rolled her eyes and waited, trusting him to know what he was talking about. When he finally offered her the plate, she grinned widely and grabbed a piece, stuffing it into her mouth.

Once they finished eating, Stiles had Malia help him wash everything, happy that she liked to play in the soapy water. After everything was set in the drying rack, Stiles wondered what she might want to do, they still had quite a few hours together. Malia dutifully followed Stiles into the living room, wondering what he was going to show her next.

Stiles turned towards her, seeing her expectant face and scratched the back of his head, "I'm not sure what you might want to try next. Any hobbies that you remember that you might want to try, I can probably find most of the typical stuff here in the house."

Malia shrugged, "What Stiles normally do?"

"Well, normally I'd be at school learning stuff, or if it was during the summer, I'd be sleeping still," he laughed.

"Nap!"

"You, want to take a nap? It's only like 10 o'clock."

"Was up early, can't sleep inside much. Wake up when sun is out."

Stiles gaped at her, "You've been up since sunrise? Wow, you are quite the early bird. If you are sleepy we can take a nap. That's fine, I won't say no to that."

Malia hummed in approval, taking off and running upstairs, heading straight for Stiles's room. By the time Stiles caught up with her, she had grabbed his top blanket and was working on creating a nest.

"How did you know this was my room?" he asked.

"Smells like you, other room smell empty, or like Sheriff; this room must be yours," she explained, not looking up from her project.

"Hey, if you make your little den right in the middle of the bed, where am I supposed to sleep?"

"No sleep in nest?" Malia asked, tilting her head in the usual fashion.

"No, I take up the whole bed when I sleep, I lay out like a starfish."

Malia looked at the blanket she was sitting on and then back at Stiles, unsure of how to continue. So Stiles took the initiative and sat down on the bed.

"I'll lie here, on the edge, and use this pillow, and you can make your nest next to me, however you are comfortable, sound good?"

Malia nodded her head and waited for Stiles to get comfortable before she shifted the blanket to her new spot. It was a little oblong, definitely more oval shaped than circular, but it would do. As she curled up next to his side, Stiles felt slightly nervous, was this okay? They were just napping, Stiles thought it would be on the couch, but then she found his room and settled in. They weren't doing anything, just sleeping- Stiles would never take advantage like that, not that she was even thinking about those things. Still, he was fairly certain that Mr. Tate would probably shot him if he were to walk in on this. But his brain was already starting to slow down, his bed really was comfortable, and Malia was making this happy almost purr noises as she settled down.

"Comfy?"

"Almost," Malia admitted. Stiles bed was narrow, more so than her own, but it felt more comfy to be surrounded by Stiles's scent. Her bedroom still smelled dusty to her, unlived in, and she just couldn't find it in her heart to scent the blankets. It still didn't feel like home, so she had no reason to make it smell like home. But here, Stiles was friend, and friend was safe! Stiles was warm too, that was even better. At first she felt a little nervous about napping, when she realized Stiles would be right here, but it faded fast. He was trustable, and gave hugs, so he was ok to be this close. She pressed her back against his side, humming deep in her throat at his warmth, almost comfortable. As she closed her eyes and let her body relax, she searched for the perfect spot for her head, but the pillow was too cold, wasn't right. Instead she tilted her head back and lay on Stiles's chest/shoulder.

"Now comfy," she slurred, already close to sleep.

Stiles unfolded his arm from under his head and wrapped it around his companion. From the awkward position, he felt like he was almost strangling her in the crook of his arm, hand way overreaching her shoulder, but Malia smiled and snuggled in closer, so he assumed she was comfortable. It was only a few moments before he was out like a light, Malia right behind him, lulled by his heartbeat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray, Malia learned how to make pancakes and now they are napping together! I decided to go for a nap since I think it will help the two of them bond a lot. Clearly Malia is used to being on her own so to invite a friend to sleep with her (when she is most vulnerable) will mean that she will connect with Stiles a lot more. Already his scent comforts her, and since this is her first friendship, she's going to form a very strong bond with Stiles, which might cause some drama in the coming chapters. But nothing too bad, I promise. Hope you enjoyed the cuteness! I loved writing this part.


	4. After Nap Activities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that they have napped, what will Malia and Stiles to do pass the time?

It wasn't until 2 hours later that Malia stirred, a jingle filling her ears. She mumbled as she opened her eyes, looking for the source of the noise; after just a moment she saw a glowing object on the desk- a phone. As she leaned forward to grab it, she felt some resistance, her eyes opening all the way; but it was just Stiles's arm and she calmed down. Instead of trying to dislodge herself, besides she told herself it wasn't her phone so she shouldn't be looking at it anyways, she rolled over and started nudging her friend.

"Hmm?"

"Phone Stiles, is ringing."

Stiles did a one armed stretch and rubbed his eyes, "Why people be calling me? Don't they know it's nap time?"

Malia laughed as he untangled his arm and climbed off the bed to look at his phone, "Oh, it was just a text, Dad wants to come and check on us. Well what he said he'd wanted to come have lunch with us but that really means he wants to check on us. Is that okay?"

"Lunch with Sheriff? Is okay… Just Sheriff?"

"Yea, it will just be my dad, he'd warn me if anyone else was coming. What do you want to eat, he said he'd be willing to stop by somewhere on his way back. Oh, I see what you're doing Dad, think you're sneaky!"

"Sneaky, why?" Malia asked, wondering why the Sheriff had to be sneaky. Usually sneaky meant being very careful, or you were up to something bad.

"Well, I'm trying to make sure he eats healthy, so normally I try and cook dinner, so I can keep an eye on what he eats. I also have the deputies keeping an eye out for him too, they tell me how often he eats bad food as lunch when I'm not there to see him. So now, if he's offering to stop somewhere to pick up lunch, that means he'll try to order something bad for him."

"What place has not bad for Sheriff food?"

Stiles sank onto the edge of the bed while he thought, any typical fast food was out of the question, which meant no curly fries and burgers for them. Chinese food was probably not any better at this point, definitely not for lunch, sometimes for dinner that was fine, but Stiles wasn't going to encourage his dad to eat the salty foods for a midday meal.

"The only place I can think of offhand would be Sally's, it's a sandwich place, is that okay with you?"

"Sally's? I don't know Sally."

Stiles tilted his head, "You don't know… oh no, you wouldn't. Sally's is new, well, not to us, but it's new to you. It was built like 5 years ago. They make all kinds of sandwiches, all on the long rolls. It's great. What do you think you might want?"

"Sandwich, what comes on it?"

"Anything you want, or anything you don't want on it," he explained, stretching again.

Malia smiled, "No stuff?"

"No stuff," Stiles agreed, "All that's left is to decide what kind meat you want and what kind of bread."

"Bacon? Like from breakfast, was very yummy."

"Yea, they can do that, and it should be fresh, they make the bacon as it's demanded. Now, let's head down the hall and see what kind of bread you like better."

Malia yipped and jumped off the bed, leading the way back into kitchen. Stiles directed her to breadbox on the counter.

"We have white bread and then some 12 grain bread that Dad actually likes, I tend to avoid it. Don't like that much crunchy stuff in my bread." Stiles pulled out a slice of each one and handed it her. He waited as she carefully chewed on each piece and thought it over.

"White bread," she finally decided, "Too much taste in other."

"Alright, I'll text Dad and let him know, he'll probably be here in an hour or so, what do you want to do until then?"

Malia shrugged, she was here to spend time with Stiles, so anything was okay. She looked at Stiles and waited, he'd know what to do next.

Stiles put his phone in his pocket after he messaged his dad, and walked to the garage, Malia right behind him. He went over to one of the old boxes of his kid stuff- Dad hadn't been too keen on getting rid of anything. Carefully he pulled down one of the boxes, the dust flying in the air and making the two teens sneeze.

"What in box?" Malia asked, eyes bright with curiosity.

"I have a lot of stuff from when I was a youngster, I figure this might have some fun learning stuff in it. Want to give it a shot?"

"Learning? Learn what?"

Stiles shrugged rummaging through the box, "Well, we have some alphabet stuff in here, you can learn to read, write, and there is math stuff too."

"Read, I liked reading before, maybe like still?" Malia offered.

Stiles smiled and tucked the box under his arm and they went back into the living room. Stiles carefully dusted the box with a rag, to ensure that dust didn't go flying everywhere; after that he pulled out some old kid books.

"Here you go, pick the one that looks the most interesting and we'll read it. I figure listening to a story would be more fun than studying the alphabet. Afterwards we can brush up on our letters and sounds so you have a better understanding of it all. I'm thinking it will come back to you fairly fast, just like speaking did."

Malia smiled at his confidence and looked through the different books, finally deciding on The Very Hungry Caterpillar, She handed the book to Stiles and curled up next to him on the couch, ready to listen.

"Oh man, this book brings back so many memories, ok, here we go- 'In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf.'"

Malia smiled as she followed Stiles fingers on the pages, then at the end of every page, she looked at the artwork. She laughed when he ate through the chocolate cake, the cheese, and so many other things.

"And he's still hungry?" she asked.

"Yup, still hungry," Stiles laughed.

Once they finished the book, Malia looked at her companion, "Is really where butterflies come from? I used to chase butterflies when I was furry."

"Yup, the caterpillars get nice and fat then they make those cocoons and after awhile they come out as butterflies. It's a pretty interesting process really."

"Very cool. This one next?" Malia asked, holding up another book already.

"Oh I forgot all about this one! If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, this is a good one too," Stiles said.

He cleared his throat and opened the book, letting Malia look at all small details of the illustrations before he started reading. They were still reading the book when Mr. Stilinski opened the door and announced himself, bag of food in his hand. Malia stiffened when he came in, still feeling nervous about seeing other people, but she managed to smile at him.

"Hey Dad, guess what we found in the garage," Stiles called out.

"Oh God, you mean besides dust?" John laughed, walking into the kitchen.

"Yea, we did find some of that. But we found a box of my old learning stuff. I've been reading to Malia, just to kinda reintroduce her to the written word."

John nodded, "Oh, and how is that going Malia?"

"Good, I like looking at the pictures while Stiles reads. But I follow along and look at letters too."

"That's nice, is it all coming back to you?"

Malia shrugged, "Little bit."

"I bet you're ready for a break, I brought lunch," the Sheriff bribed, pulling the sandwiches out of the bag.

"Oh boy!" Mali yipped and climbed into a chair eagerly.

"So Stiles, while we're eating, tell me what else you've been up to so far today."

Malia turned her head to look at Stiles when she heard the sped up heart beats, wondering what he was nervous about. But Stiles just smiled at his dad and began to explain, thankful that at least his dad didn't have superhearing.

"Well, I had just made breakfast when Malia and Mr. Tate showed up, and apparently Malia hadn't eaten breakfast-"

"Too excited!" Malia cut in, big smile on her face.

"Yea, and she liked the pancakes, and since I had some leftover batter, we made some more. Malia even flipped a pancake all by herself."

"It was wrong… but still yummy. Eat anyways," Malia informed him, not ashamed of her botched first attempt.

"She flipped it a little too slow, so it folded over," Stiles explained. "After that we actually took a nap-"

"Stiles, really? She's here to get better," John chided, keeping his tone light though, so Malia didn't worry.

"Oh but Dad, she'd been up since the crack of dawn, literally! I didn't make her take a nap. Besides it was only for like 2 hours, and now we're learning stuff."

"Yea, learning stuff!" Malia repeated, hearing that Stiles's hearbeat was slowing down again.

"Okay, okay, I suppose a nap must have been nice. What time is Mr. Tate coming back to pick her up?"

"Around 6 or so, and since we're having a late lunch, I doubt we'll have dinner before she leaves. What time do you get off work today?"

"I should be heading home by seven, are you going to make dinner for us tonight?"

Stiles nodded, "I saw that we have some frozen fish, so I'll probably make that and some kind of vegetable for us. And I see that you were actually responsible and got a turkey sandwich for lunch, go Dad."

"Yea, although I was a little bad and got the works," John admitted, although it wasn't like the sandwich didn't speak for itself.

"Works?"

"Yea, it means all the stuff, ketchup, mustard, pickles, olives, tomatoes, cheese, lettuce," Stiles explained. "Most of that stuff isn't bad, like the tomatoes and lettuce, but the mayo and cheese probably could have been left off. But Dad told me that if he couldn't get cheese on his sandwiches, neither could I, so I caved. I cannot have a sandwich with no cheese."

"I had to draw the line somewhere," John said, pointing at his son. "I can only do so much healthy before I go crazy."

Malia sat back and watch the two men talk back and forth, catching most of what they were saying but at some points, the conversation was just too fast for her. But she didn't mind, it was nice to see these two interact, it reminded her of all the time she had spent with Kaya growing up. Those memories made her happy and sad at the same time, but at least she didn't bolt from the table. But something must have shown on her face because Stiles reached out and touched her arm.

"What's going on in your head Malia?"

"Memories of Kaya, am happy and sad."

"Was that your sister?"

Malia nodded and let out a deep sigh, "Before Kaya thoughts used to make me just sad, now happy and sad is better?"

John spoke up before Stiles could, "Yea, that's better. The hurt takes a long time to go away. Actually… the hurt never goes away, it just sleeps for awhile. But it will come back from time to time, and it's okay to just be sad and cry. You just have to remember all the good stuff too, it's okay to smile too."

"I still get sad when I think of Mom, she died 8 years ago… at first I was always sad, I missed her so much. Then sometimes I would think of her and laugh, because I'd remember something happy. And I'd also cry, usually while I was laughing. Even now, some days I get sad and I miss her, but most of the time, I can smile when I think of her," Stiles added.

Malia sniffled, "So I get better too?"

"Yea, you'll get better too, you just have to let it all go. These emotions are normal, so you don't have to hide them. Hiding them is bad, it makes you sick sometimes too. If you don't hide from them, they'll heal and you can start smiling more when you remember them."

"Like what you said before?"

Stiles nodded, glad that she had made the connection; he had done his best to explain how he had felt all those years ago, and if Malia could remember what he'd said the other day about talking about things, and not keeping her emotions inside, he was sure that she'd get past this.

"Well, I'm glad that you listen to my son Malia, he's a good kid. He's been in some rough spots before, so I'm sure he'll be able to explain what you're feeling. Just don't be afraid to ask questions okay? Remember, we all want you to feel better," the Sheriff said. "I have to get back to the station now, but it was nice to see you Malia, I'm glad that you trust us to help, I know this transition can't be easy for you."

"Have nice day Sheriff, thank you for food."

"Yea, thanks Dad, it was nice to see you for lunch. At least now I know you didn't sit at your desk all day and forget to feed yourself."

John laughed and helped them clean the table before he hugged his son and then waved to Malia. He promised to be home on time for dinner, and Stiles pretended to believe him. After he left, Stiles and Malia went back into the living room and sat on the couch.

"Did you want to talk about your memories, or read more? Up to you," Stiles offered.

"Memories make me cry though, I want to be happy."

"Well, we don't have to talk about it right now, you know that. But the sooner you do talk about them, and think about them, the better you will feel. Crying isn't fun, but it really makes you feel better afterwards, on the inside."

Malia thought about what he was saying, wondering how that could be true. The last few times she'd cried, she felt exhausted afterwards and didn't want to think about anything sad. But maybe,,, maybe by really remembering, and not trying to forget will be different. Stiles was a friend, that meant he wouldn't trick her, so maybe she should try. With a heavy sigh, she started talking.

"Kaya, Kaya loved dolls, she had very many at house. Sometimes I was mean and I'd take them and hide them, just because I think funny. But Mom would get mad at me, and I'd give back. Other times, Kaya and I would play together with dolls, was fun. Mom would play too, dress up in nice clothes and all play together, I miss that."

As Malia continued to talk about some of her early memories of her sister, she felt the sadness well up in her chest. But Stiles scooted closer and wrapped an arm around her, so Malia kept talking even after the tears were streaming down her face. After awhile she couldn't talk anymore, the pain was just too much. So Stiles held her close and told her to just feel everything, kept telling her not to run away from it… and so she just kept crying.

"All that blood Stiles, was from me… I did that to them, me!"

"Not you Malia, not human you, that was the coyote part, the part you didn't know how to control."

"Coyote is me!" Malia cried out, not understanding the difference.

"It's complicated, I know when Scott first transformed, he tried to eat me a few times. And he's like my brother. It was really scary you know, I won't lie about that. It was like… he didn't know who I was at first. But that was because he didn't have control over the wolf part of him. Now he does, now he'd never hurt me."

"You think same for me?" Malia asked, hiccupping.

"Yea, I do. Was this the first time you had ever changed?" he asked. When she nodded against his shoulder, he continued, "When you first change, you aren't yourself. Part of your brain is like an animal, your human part goes to sleep kinda. It takes practice to have both parts be awake at the same time, but Scott finally learned. You didn't have time to learn, and then after the accident, you got stuck like a coyote. You never got to learn how to do both, and now you're a person again and you hate it. Because it feels wrong to you, but you can learn to be both, not one or the other."

"Like Ms. Morrell said?"

"Yup, like she said, look at Scott and Derek, they know how to be both. Isaac is still learning, sometimes he gets mad or scared and his wolf side takes over. But he hasn't hurt anyone yet and we keep practicing with him."

"What if I hurt someone? Like I hurt Mommy and Kaya?"

"That's what we're here for. I know you don't really trust Scott and the others just yet, and that's okay. But if something were to happen and you got confused, we would stop you from hurting people. I helped Scott control his wolf, I'm sure we'll figure out a way to help you too. But first, you have to get better on the inside, okay?"

"Get better first, then learn to be both?"

Stiles nodded again and felt the girl relax. They sat like that for awhile, both happy to just sit for now after the emotional moment.

"Stiles right, I feel better now on inside. Face feels not better though," Malia stated, wiping her face.

"Yea, that's the not fun part of crying, Let's go wash your face, that helps a lot."

Malia followed her friend to the bathroom and watched as he cupped his hands to collect water and then splashed his face. Then while he dried off, Malia repeated the action, loving the cold water on her face, just like Stiles had said- it felt better. Afterwards, Stiles let her sit back down on the couch and continued to read to her, figuring she had done enough progress for one day. They were still reading when Mr. Tate rang the doorbell later that evening and Malia said a sad goodbye to Stiles. But Stiles promised that they'd learn more the next day as she climbed into the car. After she was buckled in, Mr. Tate asked Stiles how the day went; Stiles paused but figured he could at least tell him most of what had happened.

"Most of the day was fairly uneventful, she helped me make more pancakes, then she said she was kinda sleepy, so we napped. We had lunch with my dad and I read some old kids books to her. But she also opened up to me, Malia knows that talking about everything will help her feel better, but it's hard to just finally let go you know? But we talked about Kaya today for a little bit. It made her really sad, and she cried for awhile, but then she said she felt better on the inside."

"Really, she spoke about Kaya? That's wonderful; I really wasn't sure how much she might remember from, before. I know Ms. Morrell told me about letting her talk to people her own age, and to not push anything, so I won't ask about it. But please, tell me the next time she brings them up?"

"I will Mr. Tate, and she knows she can talk to you too, but I think it harder with you since you are family too you know? I talked about my feelings with Scott way before I talked to my Dad after Mom died. She will open up to you too, just let it happen naturally, like Ms. Morrell said."

Mr. Tate nodded, "I will, thank you again Stiles. Have a good night."

As Mr. Tate climbed into the car, Stiles waved at Malia; he knew she had heard everything just now, so hopefully she wouldn't feel stressed about her dad asking too many questions. Judging by the calm smile on her face, she'd followed the conversation well enough. Slowly he walked back inside and messaged Scott. Now that Malia had gone home, Scott got to come bring him the homework from the day, and they could talk about practice while Stiles made dinner.


	5. Letters, Numbers, and Fur

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles helps Malia with the alphabet as well as her numbers, then they get surprised by some visitors. How does Malia take it?

*Wednesday Morning*

Stiles opened the door just as Malia started to knock on the door; he was ready for her this time, he had books ready as well as some coloring stuff. He even waited to start making his breakfast, just in case she was hungry again- prepared! They waved to Mr. Tate before he drove off and then Malia jumped around in the house, excited for their second day together.

"What we do today?" Malia asked.

"Well, I guess I'm going to start with breakfast. Did you eat this morning?"

Malia shook her head, "Want cook with you! I tell Dad we eat here."

Stiles couldn't help but smile, "I thought as much. So I decided to put off eating until you got here. I was thinking omelets today? Do you like eggs?"

"Yes, I had before when with Dad. Some stuff okay…No 'works' just some," Malia explained.

"You remembered! That's good, see, it's all coming back to you. So what things are okay?" Stiles praised as he opened the refrigerator.

"Meat, pink meat? Um, cheese?" Malia offered, not really sure of what her dad had put in it before.

"Ham, like this?" Stiles asked, pulling out a ham steak. When Malia nodded, he also pulled out a few different packages of shredded cheese. "Do you know which cheese? We have the standard cheddar, mozzarella, and Monterey."

Malia opened the packages and sniffed at them before pointing to the Monterey package. She then moved next to the stove, eager to watch Stiles do more cooking.

"Okay so, I try to keep our food as healthy as possible but, omelets are usually an exception, I still cook those with melted butter. I also put some milk in the eggs to add some extra fluff. So, we crack our eggs into the bowl here, and take a fork like this," Stiles explained, whipping the eggs. After he added the milk he poured it into the pan. "Okay while that's cooking, we're going to cut up some of the ham."

Once he had enough ham cut up, he sprinkled the ham into the pan, and allowed it to cook for a while longer; then he added in his cheese and folded the omelet with the spatula. "Now, not everyone makes it like this. Some people mix it all together and just let it cook in the pan like that. How did you eat it?"

"Like this," Malia told him. "Dad made like sandwich. Egg on top and bottom."

"Did you want to make your own? Or did you want me to?" Stiles asked. He wanted her to get more comfortable with doing things on her own, but he knew how cooking things could be a little daunting when you were unsure of your own skill.

Malia paused a moment, "I cook, but you… watch? Help if I do wrong?"

"Of course, I wouldn't leave you here to do it all alone, this is only your second meal you've made here."

Stiles handed her a few eggs and helped show her how to crack the first one and throw away the shells, he hoped she knew how to control her own strength and didn't completely smash the eggs against the bowl. As he watched her baby-tap the edge of the bowl, he realized he might have gone a little overboard with the 'gentle' instructions.

"Okay, a little bit harder, but not too much. It took me awhile to get the right pressure so don't feel bad. It's better to start too soft than to completely smash the egg," Stiles told her as he took his own omelet out of the pan.

Malia nodded her head and tapped the egg a few more times with a bit more force before it finally cracked enough for her to pull apart. She tossed the shells in the garbage and cracked the third egg much easier than her first, now that she had a reference to go off of. Once all the eggs were in there, she watched Stiles pour a small amount of milk into the bowl and then took the fork from him. She stirred a few times like she'd seen Stiles do but the eggs weren't mixing together right and she huffed in frustration.

"Here, let me help," Stiles offered. He came up behind her and took her hand. "You want to mix kinda fast, but not with a lot of force or all the egg will spill out. Another one of those things you just need practice with to get better."

Malia let him help her whip the eggs, easily grasping the movements he was making with his wrist but failing to do it by herself when he let go. Maybe they could also have this for lunch and she'd get to practice more, she wanted to be good at cooking! As a coyote, she was in charge of her own meals and if this is what it meant to provide food as a human, she wanted to be able to fend for herself. She continued mixing on her own until Stiles told her they were done and she poured them into the pan.

"Now cut meat?" Malia asked. When Stiles nodded in approval and she cut up some of the ham like she'd seen him do. She really liked the ham so she asked Stiles if she could add a lot of it, yipping in excitement when he said she could. Once it was all cut up she added them to the pan, waiting until Stiles signaled to add in the cheese. She let out a quiet whimper as she picked up the spatula, "Stiles help? I no flip good."

Stiles smiled at her, at least the point of this meal was to fold it over but she was clearly remembering her messed up pancake flip from the other morning. "Okay, hold the spatula like this, and you only want to fold it, not flip it over like the pancakes. So you get some of it on the spatula and then lift," he explained as he helped her to fold the omelet. "Ta da, now just leave it to cook for a moment and it's done."

Stiles moved his omelet to the table and poured some orange juice for the two of them, timing it perfectly for when Malia's food was done. He made sure to remind her to turn off the stove before she left the counter and joined him at the table- safety first.

"Juice?" Malia asked, holding the cup to her nose and sniffing.

"Orange juice," Stile said around a mouthful of egg. "Good for you, should have some. I'm drinking it too. No bubbles in it though so you should like it."

Malia looked at the juice, her Dad always offered her some but she'd always stuck to water for their meals, and her experience with soda was still fresh in her mind. But Stiles said no bubbles so she'd try it, it was made of oranges and she remembered those. She took a tentative sip and processed the taste, it actually reminded her of when she was a kid- her Mom would give her this juice in the mornings! "I like, remind of good memories."

Stiles smiled at her before continuing to eat his breakfast, he was glad that Malia was still remembering stuff from when she was little. It gave him faith that all of her good memories were just locked away from her time as a coyote; if he could help her unlock them, she'd definitely become more stable. Breakfast went quickly, both teenagers were quite hungry in the morning, and once again Malia helped him with the dishes.

"Now what do? No nap, feeling much energy today," Malia told him.

"Well I have art stuff if you want to just kinda relax, or we have those alphabet cards, if you want to try remembering stuff?" Stiles offered.

"Alphabet!" Malia yipped. She felt energized and wanted to progress today. Some of the reading came back to her when she'd been listening to Stiles read to her, so hopefully the letters would come back to her easily enough. She followed her friend into the living room and climbed onto the couch, legs crossed on the cushions.

"I guess we just start with A and work our way through. Then if you do good with that, I'll mix up the letters and see if you remember them?"

Malia yipped in approval, she was ready to show Stiles she wasn't completely stupid after all her time in the wild. She wiggled with pent up energy as Stiles prepared the cards.

"Okay, so this is 'A' like in apple," Stiles told her, stressing the sound in the word apple. He felt a little ridiculous since Malia was 16, just like he was- it just seemed like he was treating her like a child. But he had to remind himself that in a lot of ways… she was. She might have had some schooling before she had shifted but that doesn't mean she remembered much of it. Speaking came back easily enough, since she was bound to have heard conversations while she was a coyote but, reading and recognizing letters was a bit harder. He smiled as she dutifully repeated the sounds, happy that she at least was excited to learn and not getting frustrated at the slow pace. All he needed was a frustrated Were sitting on his couch that felt he was babying her.

Everything went smoothly, all the way through the 26 letters, they even ran through it a second time, a little faster before Stiles decided to mix up the letters.

"E, makes eh sound," Malia said, yipping in glee when Stiles told her she was right. "Um… Z, makes zee sound?"" Another yip when she got that one right as well. Then she hit a wall, "M? Makes… em sound?"

"Not quite, this one is the N, en sound," Stiles told her before putting the card back into the deck.

"Oh, this is Q, with qwah sound!" Malia stated.

Stiles shook his head, "You're close, the letters are very similar in looks. But this one is the O, ooh sound. But you are getting the letters and sounds right! That's good!"

Malia nodded her head, trusting Stiles to really mean that she was doing okay. When they did come across the Q for real, she was ready. It took awhile for them to get all the way through the cards this time, since Stiles wasn't offering up any hints, she only had her memory to go off of and she was quickly learning that it wasn't as awesome as she thought.

"My brain good! I remember where good food is, I remember how deer sound different from foxes! Why I no remember stupid letters?" Malia fumed.

"It's okay, this was only your first time through. You spent years living alone with nothing to read, I'm not surprised you're a bit rusty. But, you remembered which letters have which sounds, that's a great place to start. You remember how to talk, but that took a little while right?"

Malia nodded, "Yea, I pick up talking again."

"Well, reading is a bit harder, since you have to remember what each letter looks like and how the sounds all tie together. Kids learn how to talk way before they know how to read. We can't rush it, your mind just needs time to remember. But you've easily grasped which letters make which sounds, you're just having trouble with remembering the looks of the letters. So let's take a break and draw some stuff," Stiles suggested.

"But I want to learn!" Malia argued.

"You don't want to wear yourself out by pushing too hard. Breaks will help you stay relaxed. Trust me, if we do the letters again, you'll only get more frustrated."

Malia sighed, "Ok, we draw stuff. What draw?"

"We are going to draw…. Well, whatever you want. That's the best thing about drawing. You can draw what you're feeling, something that you like, the options are endless!" Stiles explained, handing her a piece of paper and some crayons.

Malia watched Stiles for a few minutes, wondering about what exactly she wanted to draw…She observed as he focused, a small frown on his face as he tried to get the details just right although she still couldn't tell what he was making. After looking through the colors for a moment, she picked one and started scribbling in the corner of her page- maybe making colors would help her decide. As she watched the crayon make loops on the paper, she realized what she should draw. The butterflies she always used to chase in the woods! She rifled through the crayons, taking out the blue and black ones, using the black to create the outline; her movements were slow as she tried her hardest to recreate the butterfly that she'd often followed around. When she had the outline done, she filled in the wings, leaving small circles in the corners of the top wing white and also adding in small strips of blue. As she put down the blue crayon, she hummed, it looked about right, and she knew the next one she wanted to draw as well!

"Stiles, need more!" Malia huffed after looking through her small collection of colors. "Not right colors. Also need… pointy!" She explained, gesturing to the tip of the crayon in frustration.

"You need more colors?" Stiles asked in surprise. He hadn't expected her to put so much detail into her drawings so soon, but then again, who was he to judge. "I think I know what you need, I'll be right back." He got up and went back into the garage, this time going into his Mom's old art box. She loved to color with him when he was younger and had a lot of different supplies. He hadn't touched them in years, but he knew that they were just going to waste of he left them out here, and Malia wanted more colors. Stiles took a deep breath and grabbed the large box of colored pencils- still sharpened, and went back to the living room. "Here ya go, this one has 72 colors. That should be plenty, and they are sharper than the crayons."

"Thank you," Malia said, pouring all the pencils out and digging through them. She easily grabbed all the colors she was going to need and arranged them around her paper. "Butterfly again."

Stiles sat back and watched her outline another butterfly, the wing tips a little more pointed than the first's, and there wasn't as much wing overlap. He sat quietly as she started putting in the detail with one of the brown pencils, jaw dropping open as she quickly changed pencils and added in a lighter brown. She worked slowly, letting the picture come to life one color at a time, surprising Stiles with the amount of detail she was managing. The fake eyes on the tops of the wings looked menacing, the orange standing out against the dark brown.

"Wow Malia, that's amazing!" Stiles confessed.

"I chase all the time, I like the not-eyes on wings. Not my favorite though, almost."

Stiles smiled at her, "Are you going to draw your favorite next? Now that you have more colors?"

Malia nodded and picked up the black pencil once more; Stiles left her to the picture, wanting to wait to see the final product. No way anything he was going to draw was going to hold a candle to her images, but he decided to finish his picture anyways. Minutes when by in silence before Malia hummed in approval, holding up her paper for him to see; Stiles actually applauded when he saw the final result.

"Malia, this is absolutely amazing, that's a… a swallowtail. I recognize the pattern. It so, so detailed, who needs to learn the alphabet when you can create stuff like this," Stiles murmured.

"I wanna learn!" Malia argued.

"Okay, I know, you want to learn I was just, kidding- kinda. It's just that, you have an eye for detail, that I'd never be able to master. So don't get too frustrated that some of this is hard for you okay? Because not everyone can draw like this either."

Malia shrugged, "I spent much time chasing them and looking, they are pretty."

"Maybe you can show me, where you used to watch them, we'll take the coloring stuff too," Stiles offered. She might not like traveling by car but there was no way he was walking that far.

"That would be nice," Malia smiled. "But more letters now?"

Stiles held in a laugh, "Did you want to do the hints again or just practice?"

"Hints," she mumbled, knowing that she needed the practice and being prideful wasn't going to help.

Stiles shuffled through the cards and quickly put them all in order, if she had the order right, it should help her learn it- why else would they teach the kids that song. They repeated the whole set three times before she felt comfortable enough to try mixing it up again, They celebrated when she got 6 in a row correct, even though she got the next one wrong- it was something worth celebrating. After a few more rounds of that, Malia was ready for another break, once again picking up the pencils.

"What draw now Stiles?" she asked.

"Hmm, why not, draw your den, before we scared you into moving. I'd like to see how that den looked from your eyes," Stiles suggested.

"I can do, my old home, I liked it a lot."

They smiled at each other and proceeded to draw, Stiles humming a tune in his head to help pass the time. They worked on the pictures for about an hour before Malia turned to Stiles again.

"Hungry now, lunch time?"" she asked.

"Yea, I can agree with that, what do you want to eat?"

Malia shrugged, "What food you have? More omelet practice?"

"We just had those for breakfast," he laughed in response. "We have some leftover pizza from Monday night. It's pepperoni, if you like it. If not I can make you a sandwich or something," he told her.

"I try."

The two of them headed into the kitchen, Stiles pulling out a plate of cold pizza, "I'll warm up a small piece for you to try. If you don't like it then I'll eat it," Stiles said.

Since this was the first time Malia was seeing him use the microwave, she was standing just over his shoulder, examining his every move closely. She flinched back when the machine started working, the loud hum startling her.

"Sorry, this thing is old so it's kinda loud. But you don't want to be close to it anyways, they say it's bad for you," Stiles shrugged, pulling Malia back a few steps.

When the pizza was warm, Stiles handed her the plate and had her take a bite- warning her that the cheese might be a little warm. He started heating up his own slice while she tested out the heat with her fingers, deeming it eatable. Moments later he heard the telltale moan of happiness, one he was well acquainted with- pizza was now on Malia's list of good food.

"Good! I remember this, had every Friday!" the teen revealed. "Maybe we have on Friday, I stay later?"

"You'd want to have dinner here?" Stiles asked, biting into his own slice.

"Dad come too maybe? Eat dinner, Dad see I make… um… better?"

"Progress?"

Malia nodded, "Yes, that word. Progress, get better with people."

"Well, maybe we should work on your manners then," Stiles laughed, handing her a napkin. "You have grease on your chin."

Malia grumbled under her breath and snatched the napkin, "Coyote never need napkin." But she wiped her face before finishing her slice and asking for another.

"Do you know that Danny eats his pizza with a fork?" he told her.

"Fork?" Malia asked, making a fork shape with her fingers. "Why? Hands work fine."

Stiles shrugged, "He hates getting grease on his fingers, says he'd have to use like twenty napkins to get clean."

"Twenty, how many is twenty?" she asked, head tilted to the side.

"Oh, we haven't really covered numbers yet have we? Those are important too. We can do that after lunch. But um, twenty.. Oh, duh, that's the number of fingers and toes you have."

She looked down at her hands and then her feet (she'd pulled off her sandals shortly after arriving), "Twenty is fingers and toes. How many is just fingers?"

"Ten, which is half."

Malia nodded slowly and looked at her fingers as she ate. She remembered ten and other numbers but she didn't remember their exact order. "Yes, practice numbers next, take break from letters."

Now that she had a new project to focus on, Malia finished her lunch and rinsed her plate- jumping around and telling Stiles to hurry. She practically pulled him back into the living room once he was done rinsing his plate. "Numbers, numbers!"

"I'm getting there, I have to pull them out," he laughed, enjoying her enthusiasm. He held up the first card as well as 1 finger, "One, there is one apple."

"One," she repeated, holding up a finger as well.

"Two, now there are two apples," Stiles continued, adding another finger.

When they made it to ten, Stiles put two cards, facedown, on the table. "How many cards are on the table?"

Malia matched each card to a finger, holding up two fingers, "This many, is two."

"Correct, now how many?" he asked, after adding 3 more cards.

Slowly she matched them up on her fingers, repeating the numbers in her head, "Five now? Whole hand."

"Yea, that's five," Stiles smiled.

"What comes after ten?"

Stiles rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, there are a lot of numbers that come after ten, but there is a pattern to it. The only thing you have to remember is the names of them."

"Show please," Malia yipped. Numbers seemed a lot easier than letters so far.

Stiles obliged, doing his best to explain how after ten, came eleven, ten plus 1 more. Then twelve was ten plus 2 more, all the way up to twenty. He knew that having the visual numbers helped, but that associating words with symbols was where she was having a harder time with. But in theory, the patterns that number had should actually make this easier for her… letters didn't exactly follow a particular order or pattern that he knew.

"My hands, and your hands is twenty?" Malia asked, remember that she used to practice her numbers with her Mom and then helped to teach Kaya. Stiles nodded and held up his hands, letting her practice counting all the way to twenty; it was a little slow but she remembered the right order and counted all the way to twenty without any hints.

"I know numbers! Kinda know letters," Malia celebrated. She loved learning with Stiles, he took everything so slow and didn't get frustrated with her. If anything, she was bound to get more frustrated with herself, but he made sure they took breaks. "Stiles good teacher, thank you."

Suddenly Stiles found himself tackled against the back of the couch, Malia's arms wrapped around him in a hug. As he returned the hug, he felt her cheek rubbing against his- she was scent marking him? That came as a surprise, coyotes were generally solitary creatures, but then again, she was also human and humans usually flocked together.

"What do now?"

"Well, I think we've learned a lot today, and I don't want to burn you out so, want to watch a movie? I've got Netflix on my laptop, and a HDMI cable so I can hook it up to the TV."

"Movie sound fun," she answered with a big smile. It would be a great way for her to practice listening and following along with conversations.

"Okay, I'll be right back, practice your numbers until it's all set up," he told her, rushing upstairs.

"Okay, movie time," Stiles mumbled to himself. "Blankets, blankets are essential for relaxing movie times, and popcorn? No… we just ate lunch. Laptop, okay check, cable, check." He piled a couple of blankets on top of his laptop and made his way back downstairs. "Blankets for us," he said, dumping them playfully on Malia's head.

Malia yipped happily, Stiles's blankets! She started setting them up on the couch, focusing on making a nest for them while he was making the TV work right. A few moments later, it was all ready, just as Stiles grabbed the remotes and settled onto the couch. She waited for him to get his legs propped up on the table and comfortable before she threw the blanket over him and curled up by his side.

"All set?"

Malia nodded in response, eager to see the movie.

"Okay, so I'm putting on The Croods, since I think it's adorable and Scott refuses to watch it with me any more- something about 50 times being too many. I think it is just your speed, and it's not really sad, like Lion King," Stiles explained as the movie started.

"If I have questions, I can ask?" Malia wondered. She had flashed back to a time when they went to this big movie place as a family and Dad kept telling her to shhh while they were watching. So she wanted to make sure that those rules didn't apply here too.

"Yea, ask away. It's just us here so you won't be bothering anyone. Isaac, Isaac is a stickler for no talking during movie. Which is like, impossible for me, I'm always pointing something out… I can even rewind and stuff if you missed something, I've got the mouse here so I can control the computer with it."

Satisfied with his answer, Malia snuggled into his side some more and started watching the movie. Her first question came almost immediately, "What kind of name is Eep?"

Stiles couldn't stop himself from laughing as he paused the movie. "These are caveman names. They speak English so we can understand them but at the same time, this is a long time ago, so they didn't have good language skills yet. Back then, in theory, they had names that were closer to sounds. Our names would sound just as weird to them. Eep is badass though, just watch. Besides, my name is weird too, both my real name and my nickname Stiles."

"True, okay, keep playing, I'm sorry Eep, your name okay."

After he resumed the movie, Stiles tousled her hair, letting her know that her question wasn't a bad one. In fact, Isaac, ever the party-pooper, had asked the same question. Obviously he didn't care too much about historical accuracy! Wait… but, what if they did have names like Ashley and Martin or something? Stiles shook his head, now totally wasn't the time to be thinking about hypothetical caveman names. They paused often so Stiles could explain some of the more complicated plot points for her but all in all Malia seemed to be enjoying the movie. She even made the little blanket fort so comfortable, Stiles didn't want to get off the couch, he was relaxed and warm.

"Watch again?" Malia pleaded as the credits started rolling. "I understand better, not so many questions."

"You want to watch it again? I'm fine with that. Let me just get something to drink… did you want more water?"

"Please, am thirsty."

Stiles groaned as he got up from the blankets, grabbing Malia's cup and his empty soda can before heading back into the kitchen. He decided that he should have water as well, limit his sugar intake since he was feeling kinda sleepy already.

"Alright, water for you m'lady, ready for round two?" Stiles asked. He hadn't even propped his legs up before Malia threw his blanket back over him again and was snuggling up to him. He smiled to himself and threw an arm around her as he restarted the movie.

He made it maybe fifteen minutes before he fell asleep, head tossed back onto the cushions; Malia didn't mind though, now that she'd had most of her questions answered. It wasn't long before Stiles's even breaths and calm heartbeat lulled her into a sleepy mood; being surrounded by his comforting scent enhanced her calm as well. As the movie was coming to an end, her eyes drifted shut.

Later, Malia's eyes shot open as she heard the front door bang open- she leapt to her feet and tried to organize her thoughts. The back door was the best escape route; her brain registered the smell of wolves and her heart spiked- wolves were larger predators, they were dangerous! She was about to leap over the couch when she heard a startled yell come from beside her- Stiles! She was with Stiles, and Stiles was human; she had to protect him, he was important to her! Her rage boiled up inside at the thought that someone would come here to hurt her only friend, she snarled and jumped over the couch, ready to attack the wolves. If she was going to protect him, she need sharp teeth again, and claws. All at once she felt her body shifting and heard a ripping noise, fur was covering her body again. She stood there on all fours, snarling at the intruders, flashing her eyes at them, warning them to stay away from her human!

"Shit, Scott, you can't just barge in here like that, we were asleep. What time is it?" Stiles cried out as he and Isaac came around the corner. "Malia, can you hear me? Malia?"

Isaac took a few steps back, "I thought she didn't know how to transform… Dude, she's going to tear out my throat… I don't want to hurt her if I have to defend myself…"

Stiles stepped forward, only to get yelled at by Scott, "Stiles, stay back, she might not recognize you, Isaac and I will heal if she attacks us, just stay behind the couch!"

Malia snarled, how dare he think she'd hurt Stiles? She was protecting him! They were the intruders here!

"Dude, Scott, it's just Malia, it's fine. She isn't even looking at me. She's more focused on you right now, you probably scared the crap out of her and well, you are an Alpha Werewolf dude. That presence is a lot to take in for someone like her. Let's just all calm down, okay?"

Stiles took a few more steps forward, gently calling out Malia's name to get her attention. "Come on Malia, that's just Scott, remember, the Alpha. And Isaac, I was telling you about him. They are friends, they aren't here to hurt us, I promise… so no more growling okay? Show Scott that you are in control."

Malia slowly took in his words, quickly looking over her shoulder to make sure he was really calm; she stopped snarling but still growled low in her throat at the threat.

"Hey Malia, come here, I'm safe, I promise. Over here," Stiles whispered, kneeling down so he was on her level.

"Stiles!" Scott warned… Malia was still new to all of this, there was a high chance that she wouldn't be able to control herself- like back when he was first bit. "Isaac, be ready to step in at the first sign of trouble, you save Stiles."

Isaac nodded and took a few small steps towards the couch, ready to leap over it and cover Stiles's frail body with his own. But Malia did seem to calm down as she looked at him, even if she was still growling, her eyes weren't glowing anymore. Cautiously she took a few steps toward Stiles, sniffing him to make sure he hadn't been injured when she wasn't looking. Once she was satisfied that he wasn't bleeding from anywhere she licked his cheek and rubbed her nose across his torso, before throwing a quick snarl in Scott's direction.

"See Scotty, she recognizes me, right Malia? You wouldn't hurt me, I trust you. Now we just have to work on getting you back into Human form, preferably without any Alpha roars. My old neighbor might have a heart attack if she heard that," Stiles teased, trying to calm down everyone in the room. Clearly Malia was taking offense to Scott's presence and wanted him to know that Stiles was not to be touched.

Malia calmed down a bit now, realizing that the two wolves weren't here to eat anyone, so she pushed Stiles down onto his butt and crawled into his lap. From there she was able to scent him by rubbing her head around his neck and cheeks- now the Alpha knew Stiles was her human.

"That's a good girl Malia, now you're calm," Stile whispered as he wrapped his arms around her furry form. A calm Coyote was a good coyote right about now. Now that Scott and Isaac were sure that he wasn't going to get attacked, they backed off a little more to put her at ease. "Okay Malia, I need you to think Human thoughts, I need your Human side in control right now. That's how Scott stays in control… I hope that's how we can get you to being human again."

She tilted her head and scrunched up her nose in confusion, how did having Human thoughts make her human again? But Stiles must know more about this than her so she did her best to think people thoughts… She just had no idea what that meant. Stiles must have sensed her frustration because he started reciting the alphabet, Malia following along in her head. She wanted to say them too; to show him she understood, but her mouth couldn't form the right shapes and all that was coming out were quiet yips and woofs. As she tried over and over again to make the right sounds, she felt a warmth spread through her stomach, making her realize that she did indeed have the drive to become Human once more. Before, she wanted to stay as a Coyote and run away from the bad thing she did, but now that she had Stiles, and he was teaching her- she had a reason to be a human. A coyote couldn't learn the alphabet, couldn't count, or answer questions… for that she needed to be a person. It was weird feeling the transformation happen in reverse- she'd been in such a shock the first time that she hadn't really registered it. Now she could feel her fingers growing and the fur along her body disappearing… her snout shrunk and her teeth became dull again.

"Stiles, I did it! Human again, by myself!" Malia cried, wrapping her now human arms around him.

He turned beet red as she hugged him; he had a naked girl in his lap and she was pressed up against him- that was the definition of awkward. He cleared his throat, "Let's get you covered up."

Thankfully Isaac had the presence of mind to toss him one of the blankets from the couch that he quickly wrapped around her. "I'm so proud of you, you figured out how to change! You um… ripped your clothes though, uh… that's a problem."

Malia frowned as Stiles helped her to her feet, the torn clothes falling to the floor. Why were clothes necessary? Sure, they helped to keep her warm now that she didn't have fur but, the boys all smelled embarrassed and Malia knew it was because of her nakedness.

"I'll let you borrow some of my clothes okay? Then we'll come up with a story to tell your dad," Stiles offered, ushering her up to his room. He pulled out a shirt, some pajama bottoms, and a pair of boxers, pausing awkwardly as he handed them over. "Sorry, I uh, don't have any –waves his hand in front of his chest- uh bras. But it should be okay for now. I'll wait in the hall."

Malia watched as he walked outside the room and shut the door behind him; she shrugged and dropped the blanket to pick up the shirt. "Stiles, why clothes needed?"

"Well, it's a human thing. Our bodies change as we get older and it's just something that we decided a long time ago was better to be covered up. Something about being too distracting or impolite…. Different people will tell you different reasons. Since we've been like this for generations now, it's just weird to be seen naked in front of others," Stiles attempted to explain.

"Is that why you all smell embarrassed?" she asked, looking between the bottoms and the little shorts he had handed her.

Stiles cleared his throat, "Yea, it was a bit of a shock to see you suddenly naked, and as boys, we're not supposed to peek at girls. Especially since you don't really know why it's embarrassing to be naked in front of three boys." He squeaked in surprise when the door opened suddenly and Malia was standing there in just his shirt.

"Which ones, shorts or pants? Why give me both?" she asked.

He turned his face to the side, praying that his face wasn't as red as it felt, "Those ones are boxers, and they are underwear. Boys use different underwear than girls most of the time, 'cause we're different… down… there. So, you should wear both- the boxers and then the pants on top."

"You have both on?" she asked, bending over to take a closer look at his pants.

"Yes I have both on," Stiles mumbled, taking a self-conscious step back. He could hear Scott and Isaac both snickering downstairs; he had half a mind to tell them to come up here and explain it but he stopped himself.

"Show, I no understand," she confessed, holding up the boxers again. "Button go in back for my tail? Why Stiles have button?"

"The button goes in the front, you don't have to worry about that, or tails, or anything else…. Boy's underwear just has buttons," Stiles explained quickly, knowing Malia wasn't going to catch all of it. Just, hopefully she didn't ask too many questions. He noticed she was still staring at his pants and then the boxers in her hand; so he lifted his shirt and pulled down the waistband of his jeans, showing her the tops of his boxers. "See, I'm wearing the boxers like underwear, and then the pants on top."

Malia shrugged, "If you say so, then I do too."

She walked back into the room and Stiles shut the door before finally sighing in relief. Thankfully she hadn't asked to see him in all his glory, or to pull down his pants all the way. No way, that was crossing the line! Nope, nope, nope, not going to be teaching her about that. He was at least going to be completely responsible and not take any liberties with her naïveté, he wasn't that kind of person. Thankfully the next time she opened the door she was all dressed and ready to head back downstairs.

"What about, the Alpha?" Malia whispered at the top of the stairs. "Is he… mad? I growled at him."

Stiles put his arm over her shoulders, "No he won't be mad. He's probably just happy this all ended with no one getting hurt. You didn't know he was going to be here, we were both asleep, you went into defensive mode."

She nodded her head and continued back down into the living room, stopping just inside the threshold.

Scott and Isaac both got to their feet, Scott speaking up, "Sorry for startling you, we had no idea you two were taking a nap."

"And sorry for thinking you'd hurt Stiles… clearly he's a good friend to you, you were just trying to protect him from people you don't know very well," Isaac added on.

"So" Scott began awkwardly. "I see you were watching Netflix, can we join you for a movie?"

Isaac nodded, "Yea, I think that would be a pretty chill way to get used to each other."

"Does that sound okay Malia?" Stiles asked.

"What movie? The adult movies…" Malia dropped off. She didn't really want to admit that she had a hard time following along with fast dialog, not in front of strangers.

"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is a great one," Stiles offered.

"Just as long as I don't have to watch The Croods again," Scott mumbled under his breath.

Malia stiffened, "Was great movie! Watched twice. Eep was badass!"

Isaac couldn't help but laugh, "Did Stiles already teach you that one?"

"Hey, Eep is totally badass! Of course I taught her how to accurately describe Eep's awesomeness," Stiles defended.

"It's a perfectly fine movie, Stiles just wants to watch it a lot," Scott explained. "But I'm down for Cloudy, it's been awhile since I've seen that one."

"We could probably squeeze that in before your dad comes to get you. And then I'll tell him about pizza night, hopefully he'll want to come," Stiles said, gently pulling Malia further into the room.

Scott remained in the far armchair, realizing that she'd probably feel a little threatened if he was too close to her (or Stiles) by sitting on the couch with them. Isaac wasn't sure what to do so he asked if he could sit with them on the couch, which Malia allowed. Stiles sat down in the middle and pulled up the movie on Netflix and felt Malia curl away from Isaac. He was proud of her though, she was still sitting in the room with them and wasn't growling or ready to bolt. Well, maybe she was since it wouldn't take much to just hop over the back of the couch but, she was sitting and not twitching nervously which he took as a good sign. Once Stiles started the movie and leaned back into the cushions, Malia relaxed a bit and curled up into his side like before, occasionally glanced over at Isaac to make sure he wasn't going to get too close.

It wasn't long before Malia let out the tiniest whimper, causing Stiles to pause the movie, "What's up?"

A quick shy glance at Isaac, Malia bit her lip, not wanting to answer.

"Hey, I can tell something's wrong but I'm not a mind reader, you have to tell me," Stiles coaxed.

"I… I have questions but… Isaac…" she trailed off.

"What did I do?" Isaac wondered, head tilted.

Stiles frowned and looked between Isaac and Malia, realization dawning on him, "Sorry, my fault. I mentioned to Malia that Isaac doesn't like talking when he's watching a movie, because I tend to talk a lot."

"I… I have question…" Malia mumbled, looking down at her hands.

Isaac laughed lightly, "Malia, you're allowed to ask questions, Stiles just talks and talks and talks. It's different, I promise I won't get mad at you for asking questions."

She looked between Isaac and Stiles, "Questions different from talking?"

"Yea, it's different," Stiles answered. "When I'm watching a movie with them, I'll point out something that I think is cool, then talk about why it's cool, which usually leads to me talking about something else I think is cool and by that time I've been talking for like 10 minutes, all without pausing the movie."

"It's also different because I've seen this movie a lot, so I won't get mad at missing some of the plot or listening to the conversation. I already know it. Stiles talks during movies we haven't seen yet too, so I miss a lot when he talks like that. Some talking is okay, like if he were to just say 'that was awesome' and then stop talking," Isaac added on.

"I was just…Why can't he take off his shoes?"

"Well, first, let me say, this movie has a lot of science in it, and a lot of it I don't get, well, I think the point is you're not supposed to. I can't say how much of the science is accurate. But in theory, he sprayed the rubber stuff on his feet, and it covered them. But since this stuff is sticky, unlike shoes, he can't pull them off, ummm, it's kinda like rubber gloves. How your hands get all sweaty and it's harder to pull them off? Or even a swimsuit, when it's wet it's harder to pull off or on. That spray stuff attached to his feet and he couldn't pull it off, just a part of the movie; if you look, you'll see that he still has those on the whole movie."

"He never need new shoes?"

Stiles shook his head, "Nope, those spray-on ones never came off. They stretched around his feet as he got older."

Malia nodded in partial understanding; since Stiles said not all the science was supposed to make sense, she gathered that none of that was important for the plot of the movie. Surely she'd have more questions but she'd try to keep them to a minimum since Stiles might not have all the answers this time. Luckily they managed to finish the movie and get most of Malia's questions answered before Mr. Tate came to pick her up.

"Here, go ahead and take the alphabet cards, so you can practice after dinner or something. Just don't forget to bring them back tomorrow," Stiles said, leading her out to the car.

"Will bring back, I promise," Malia replied.

"Malia, why…Stiles… Can you explain what happened to her clothes?" Mr. Tate asked, trying to keep his voice calm. Surely there was a valid reason for her to be in Stiles's clothes.

"Wha- oh yea! Sorry, I totally forgot about that….We did a lot of studying today, and some drawing," Stiles began, offering Mr. Tate the pictures. "So we ended the day by watching some movies, but Scott and Isaac were here, to kinda get her used to more than just me. Anyways, I had gotten some juice from the kitchen and didn't know that Malia had followed me. So when I turned around she was right behind me and I spilled the juice all over her. So I gave her some clothes to wear while I washed hers. They didn't finish drying in time so she never changed back."

Malia hoped her dad believed the lie, she could tell that her dad was trying to be okay with her not being in the right clothes. She'd have to ask Stiles about it tomorrow… shouldn't he be happy that she wasn't naked? She could also tell that Stiles was extremely nervous and didn't want to get yelled at.

"Yea, Malia is really good at silently walking around; she's surprised me a few times. Tell her all the time I'm going to attach a bell to her ankle," Mr. Tate laughed.

"Right? That sounds like a good idea. Um, we went over the alphabet and numbers today so I think she's doing pretty good. We were talking and Malia says she remembers pizza nights with the family. Would you maybe like to join us this Friday for a pizza dinner night? Maybe have Scott and Isaac too, so she's gets more socialized," Stiles mentioned.

"I get to practice more tonight," Malia shared, holding up the card box.

Mr. Tate nodded, "That sounds nice. Let me know what time and what you want us to bring. How did the hang out with the boys go?"

"Good, a little tense at first since she doesn't really know them as much. I mean Scott was there when we found her but, I guess she just doesn't trust them as much as me. But once she got used to them it was fine, we watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs."

"Sounds like a fun day. Thanks Stiles, I can already tell that she's speaking more complete sentences, as long as she isn't too excited or something."

Malia hummed proudly, she felt like she was doing better at speaking as well, she didn't come up blank on words nearly as often, or have Stiles and Dad correct her. "Stiles very good teacher, Ms. Morrell right to pick him."

"Well, see you tomorrow morning," Mr. Tate said, climbing back into the car.

Stiles headed back into the house, ready to just drop onto the couch and die- he barely managed to pull a reasonable excuse out of his ass. But as soon as he dropped onto the cushions, Isaac started laughing.

"So Stiles, which end does your tail come out of?"

Oh shut up! Next time you get to explain it to her!" Stiles shouted, throwing a pillow at him.

Scott laughed but stopped Isaac from starting a pillow war, "Let's just settle this with some good ol' Mario Kart?"

The boys battled it out until the Sheriff came home and told them all to get started on their homework. But he did let them stay over for dinner, since Melissa was working late that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter! I just couldn't cut this in half so double length chapter =D Not sure if the next chapter will be this long as well or a little closer to the previous chapters. But I will try to get all of Thursday into the chapter and not cut it like I did with the first few chapters.
> 
> Small note: the butterflies I had her drawing were the Blackened Bluewing, Milbert's Tortoiseshell, and lastly the Old World Swallowtail if you wanted to look them up. I figured that Malia spent a lot of time paying attention to small details since she'd want to be hyper vigilant during her time in the woods. And also, she was getting frustrated by enough of the day to day activities that I decided to give her a skill that she could do.
> 
> Another note: Just want to clarify in case some people get confused (since I might not even be following my own rule) I'm trying to capitalize Human/Coyote/Wolf when referring to them as a dominate gene, versus just human/coyote/wolf when referring to them as nouns. I'm sure I've failed now and then but just wanted to quickly explain why I wasn't always doing the capital or lower case. Hope that isn't too confusing.
> 
> **Update** Just made a Twitter for myself if any of you out there want to follow me and ask questions about my stories just search for TweakerWolf =D


End file.
